Black Rose: Book 2
by Elizabeth.M.Kelli
Summary: The second book of my Rose series Please read Rose of Time before this story.
1. Chapter 1

Book 2

Act I, Chapter I

A New Narrator

Now I suppose it's my turn to speak isn't it? I don't have any news from my current life to tell you before I get on to my story, so I suppose I will simply start with my name. Well perhaps even may name isn't easy to deal with, but oh well It is the simplest of what I will tell you.

My name is Michelle Elizabeth Marina Justinia Jorikas. But the name I go by is Michelle, so it's not that hard to figure out, right? Well a description of me…Well to be truthful there is nothing beautiful, or glamorous about me. I have blondish-red hair which reaches halfway to my elbows, and I wear it all tossed over my right shoulder. My eyes are brown, which some people think is weird in light of my pale hair. But it's perfectly normal for me.

I was often called the Youngest Sister in my last life, in this one I've been called a Stupid Cat, or even Baka Neko. I think I like the title of the youngest sister better than I do the title of Baka Neko. I suppose I've also been called Livi, rather than Michelle. I think I prefer Michelle over Livi, even though the people of this life know me as Livi. But since I gained my powers as the Youngest Sister of the Immortals I look different, so no one I knew before can tell I'm the same person. I doubt even Marie, or Megan would be able to tell.

"Michelle-san?" This was a girl in my school. I believe her name was Corey. She had been going to the school less time than me, but still it had been about a year or so. We went to TA, but half the time Corey instead attended Juuban High, I'm not sure how she got permission to do that, or why she would want to. TA is a much superior school, that's why I came here.

"Yes Corey-san?" I said looking up from my sketchbook.

"I was wondering if you might like to walk home with me, I think we live in the same neighborhood," Corey offered. I wonder why she would bother, she never had before.

I got my answer as we were walking. Corey was very quite for awhile, but then all of a sudden she started talking.

"My best friend suddenly disappeared a few days ago. No one's sure what happened to her, and we have a rather large group of friends. They all go to Juuban," She spoke very quickly.

"I'm sorry to hear that. What was her name?" I asked, I truly was worried about people who suddenly disappear.

"She went by Mami, but that's because she felt like there were too many Megans in the world. Her real name is Megan Kell," I stopped and stared at her. Megan was a name I knew from this life. She was a good friend of mine a few years back. She was always with me and Marie. I had come to Japan, then Marie had told me she was coming, But she never did.

"Megan Kell? M-E-G-A-N K-E-L-L, is that the person you're talking about?" I asked in shock.

"Yes, do you know her?" Corey asked excitedly.

"She's a friend of mine from a few years back. I haven't heard from her in months," I told her.

"Oh, well she's been pretty busy lately. I think that's why she disappeared," Corey was being vague, I hate it when people are vague.

"Oh, well let me help you with anything I can okay? Maybe I can get together with you and your friends, maybe we'll be able to come up with something," I offered.

"Of course, that would be perfect. Lan's worried sick over her. I'm a little worried about him too. I think he might drive himself past his limits," Corey told me, "In fact I was going to meet up with them later today. Maybe you could join us? We're meeting at a place called Crown's Café."

"Of course I'll come, I know the place. I've been there before," I told her as we reached my house, "What time?"

"Around four is good,"

"Hey guys. This is Michelle, she knows Megan," Corey introduced me as we got to the café. We had met up just as I was leaving my house.

"Hello! We can always use some help," I think I must be seeing things. Because I think that was Usagi, from Sailor Moon.

As I scanned the packed table I noticed that there were two boys, but a whole lot of girls. Twelve girls in fact. They varied from two Middle School girls, to a woman who had to be out of college by now.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" I asked the girl with meatballs on her head.

"No I don't think so," She looked uncomfortable suddenly.

"Oh, I thought you looked like Tsukino Usagi," The girls all gave each other some looks like they had heard this before, and were only mildly surprised that I would know who the girl was.

"That is me. You must be Mami's friend; she came up and said the same thing to me, well something similar,"

"Yes, that sounds like Megan. If she saw you she would have jumped on you with a vengeance. She's a Magical Girl Otaku," I said summing up her entire personality in one sentence.

"Yes, you do know her!" A girl with short blond hair said with a bit of a laugh to her voice.

"Well we have to find her. We all need her," The one who spoke was a pretty girl with really long legs, and a rather short skirt. She was pretty, and faintly familiar. But I had to wonder about those braids in her hair.

"Yes, We need to find her," Another girl with blond hair said. There were a lot of blond people. But this one didn't remind me of anyone, so I don't think she was one of the scouts.

"Perhaps you could introduce me to everyone? I think it would help if I knew all your names," I offered pointedly.

"Yes, I think that would be proper," Said the girl with the long dark green almost black hair. She was Setsuna, the girl next to her with aqua colored hair was Michiru. Next to her was the girl with short blond hair, she was Haruka. Then was The littler girl with short dark purple, almost black hair, she was Hotaru. Next to her was a girl with pink hair, she was Chibi-Usa. Then was pretty and serene Rei, then strong energetic Makoto, then hyper Minako, then the loud annoying Usagi, then quiet reserved Ami. Then Malia, the slightly eccentric, and Hannah the calm one. The men were Lan, Megan's boyfriend, and Mamoru, Usagi's boyfriend. I had to admit there were more people than I had expected.

I then introduced myself correctly.

"I am Michelle Elizabeth Marina Justinia Jorikas. Michelle is the normal name for address. For awhile I was known as Livi, but nowadays Michelle is better," I told them with a bow.

"I think Mami mentioned you. Yeah she had a picture of you and a girl named Marie on her dresser. She said that you were a Baka Neko," Usagi said happily. Yes of course that's how I'm remembered.

"Michelle, Michelle. I think I've heard that name before. Yes, Michelle is a character in one of Mami's stories! She's the Youngest Sister, but she's more powerful than Elizabeth, the Middle Sister. And more inventive than either of the other Sisters," As Hannah said this last she looked over at Malia briefly, I wonder what that was about?

"Yes, Michelle was a widely known political leader in Meapation. She was often meddling in something or another, usually it was in the Queen's affairs," Malia spoke with clarity on this subject, "Ah yes, you are her reborn. And as your elder I will forbid you from meddling like that anymore. I should have been more forceful back then."

"How…..But you shouldn't have been reborn that quickly! I died long before you!" I exclaimed loudly. I got some really weird looks for that.

"The princess needed me," Malia said and lifted the mug of cocoa that was in front of her.

"The princess, do you mean Joan? Or Alison?" I asked a little confused. Malia had only rarely come to the capital.

"Rose," Malia said forcefully.

"The third?"

"The second," She was starting to sound annoyed with me.

"But, who is she?"

"She has several names. Among them are Mami, and Megan," Malia said looking supremely depressed.


	2. Chapter 2

Act I, Chapter II

I've been feeling these eyes watching me the last few days, which isn't that strange, since the girls ended up explaining everything to me. I'm really starting to wonder about all that stuff that happened with Mami, or Rose, or Megan, or whatever her name is. Maybe Sixela, and the Dragon were only pawns in a greater scheme, that's how it feels anyway.

I mean how else would she be able to defeat both of them so easily. I've often studied Nadilire, and his power (mostly in books) and even he wouldn't have the power to defeat such evil things, not so easily at least.

But no one wants to believe me. I was always the one who separated myself from people, but not events. Malia is simply too attached. But her word is law, I can't break her standard of conduct. I know because I've tried. I've had to behave differently since I awoke as Michelle again. As Livi I was carefree, and rather irritating if I do say so myself. But as Michelle I had to be more mature, and 'act my age'. Of course my literal age in this life is only 17, but my mind's age is five hundred or more years old. So most people would think that someone my age would be crippled, old, ugly, stupid, and slow. I'm none of those to tell you the pure truth.

"-san? Michelle-san?" Corey asked rather nicely.

"Yes?"

"We're all going to Rei's temple to do a fire reading, we think we might be able to get a lock on her using Mico. She left him behind, that more than anything else worries us. She never goes anywhere without Mico,"

"I think Neptune's mirror, or Mico himself could shed just as much light on the subject as a fire reading," I told her. None of the normal prophetic channels had been behaving properly for the last several months, in fact it's been nearly a year.

"But that's another thing, Mico is turned off, we don't know what to make of that. I don't know if that's bad, or if that's good, since she's not here. But Mico's no help, and her laptop's gone so no help there, the mirror is cloudy and dark, and Pluto's gone silent again,"

"Again?"

"Yeah, she didn't say a single word for month in there, but she suddenly started talking again, right at the same time Megan got her sight back. But after Megan disappeared she went silent again,"

"Megan got her sight back? When did she lose it?"

"At the same time when she lost her hearing,"

"Her hearing too? When though? When, a date!"

"Last day before Summer Break. She was talking to Usagi then she collapsed, she wouldn't respond, not even to Lan. None of us could get her to wake up. But then suddenly she woke up on her own, and started moving. She reached around and found Lan's leg (we were all sitting around at Rei's at that point). And felt upward a bit. Lan tried to talk to her, but she didn't act like she heard anything. So Lan picked her up and started running to the Hospital. I mean we had no clue what was going on. I'm not sure when Lan got there anyway, but before I did.

"But anyway Part way there Megan started talking. I think she had figured out that it was Lan, and I think she later said something about a scout touching her shoulder. But She said that she couldn't see, or hear anything. That really freaked us out, and Uranus ended up taking her the rest of the way to the Hospital.

"Megan was in that state for weeks without change. But then one day A little girl showed up. She showed up in front of Usagi, so she sort of had a meltdown. Something like 'not another one!' I think that's what she said. So Emma convinced us she was from the future, like Chibi-Usa, and Chibi Chibi. She also managed to convince Lan that she was Lan and Megan's daughter from the future. We were having a meeting in Rei's room, and somehow we ended up talking about Megan's condition.

"Emma said something and all the sudden Megan says something. I think it was along the lines of 'Mommy? Mico explain,' We all stared at her and rei started in on how she was faking it, and she was really fine. And Emma said something about how Megan was focusing on something only she could see, like an invisible TV. Emma was ecstatic and practically attacked Megan.

"Megan got her hearing back that same day. She had been zoning out, not focusing on her 'TV', and all the sudden she screamed. We didn't know what to make of it. But Lan and Emma were worried and fell asleep right around her, the rest of us slept a little ways away.

"But when Megan woke up she could hear again. I wish I could show you exactly what happened, but to relive it like Megan tends to would take too long.

"But she just recently got her sight back after a short fight with The Dragon, who I have to say doesn't really look that fierce. But I know she could rip any of us apart, unless we work together. I still can't figure out how Megan managed to kill Sixela,"

"She killed Sixela?" I asked in surprise. I hadn't thought that she could pull it off two lives in a row.

"Yeah, we showed up to the fight scene and Megan was standing there transformed and staring off into space. Lan asked her what happened and sahe just said 'Sixela'. When she was pressed she said that she had killed her, then had an emotional breakdown.

"We thought it would be better to leave her alone, I can remember how she used to shrug us off all the time when she was upset, she didn't want someone to try and make her feel better.

"But it was during that time that she disappeared. Even Malia, who's so strong and sensitive to power couldn't tell what had happened, but she didn't just walk out of the house," Corey's story was turning disturbing.

"She just killed someone, and you left her all alone?! I think it's all you lot's fault that whatever happened did. I can't see her not wanting at least Lan, Emma, Hannah, Malia, and you by her side. She would trust any of you with her life, and everyone else's, but she also trusted you all with her heart, soul ,and her past. She needed you to comfort her and you left her alone!" I couldn't understand their stupidity. Malia has several hundred years on me, she knew more people, (she knew Rose for heavens sake!) and she still couldn't figure that Megan would need comforting after she killed someone? Just because you've done something in a past life doesn't mean that doing the same thing in a next life isn't still doing something for the first time.

All of them are idiots. I wonder if I can kill them?

No, Malia's Code of Conduct would catch me first. The Code says only kill in defense of yourself or someone you are sworn to. Figures and since I'm sworn to Rose, and she's sworn to Elle then I have to protect Corey anyway. Stupid Code.

But Corey looked chastised, so I left it at that for now. I'll yell at them all together later on.

The fire was burning really brightly as we all took up seats behind Rei. Rei was sitting directly in front of the fire, and seemed to be concentrating. As we watching she began to chant. I wasn't sure what she was saying, or what it meant. But she was spending large amounts of her Power. I suppose given that information It was some sort of either magical, or religious chant. I don't know which.

Malia looked highly uncomfortable. I wonder what she expected? Rei had done fire readings before, she wasn't going to spend too much Power, yet Malia was always paranoid of that kind of thing.

As we watched an image formed in the fire. It was a woman, who wasn't more than twenty, and likely more than fifteen. She had long dark brown hair, nearly black. Her eyes were so dark, I think they might have been black, but it's more likely that they were a very dark brown. She had pale skin and a perfect complexion. Her dress covered all the way to her feet It was silver with decorations in black and dark blue. A tiara rested on her head, slightly to the left side. I knew that tiara. It was always the one they depicted Rose I wearing. I heard Malia take a sharp breath as she came to the realization as well.

That tiara was very famous, it's still worn by every woman to take the throne, but only on their coronation. It's like full regalia, it's rarely ever worn. It was a simple triangular shape, which was curved to fit on her head properly. Engraved in the front part, where it was largest, was a diamond set by two equilateral triangles. All together the three parts made a new equilateral triangle. The problem was it had one important difference than how we had always seen it.

It was black.

The engravings were silver, as they should be, but the tiara itself should have been made out of a perfect sapphire, this one seemed to be made out of onyx.

"Malia," I said with a quiver in my voice.

"I see it too Michelle,"

"What are you two going on about?" Rei asked angrily. I'm surprised she could spare that much concentration.

"The Crown," I muttered.

"It should be made out of sapphire. It's almost sacrilege that it be made from onyx," Malia explained. So I was right, it was onyx.

"The Crown? But isn't that a tiara?" Emma asked quietly. She obviously had no memory of her last life. She had watched her granddaughter get crown after her mother's, her sister's, and her daughter's deaths. It was all in rapid succession. It was right around that period that I killed myself.

"Yes, but it's the Crown," I said with a little bit of a glare to my look. I didn't mean to, I just did it.

"Well how can it be a crown and a tiara?"

"No, it's _The_ Crown, as in the one we use in coronations? Yes it is a tiara, but it's called 'The Crown'. It's a symbol of our kingdom's power. But also of our beautiful gem-work," I told her. I know I was glaring, but I couldn't help myself. She should have been told all of this by her mother, even if she couldn't remember anything.

"oh, okay then,"

Okay then. _Okay then._ OKAY THEN! Is this girl really that stupid?

I think my glare would have burnt through steel, and yet Emma was completely unfazed. What is with this girl?

"Alright, let's leave Michelle alone for a bit," Malia said softly.

"Alone? That reminds me," I started quite congenially, "WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU LEAVE MEGAN ALONE!! You should know quite well that that was the stupidest thing you could have possibly done, and you could have done a lot of stupid stuff. You know that her soul has never settled properly after being separated all that time! She was split in two! Don't you think that you should have watched her? The fact that she was staring off into space, and had emotional breakdown, don't you think they were good warnings?"

I was really pissed at Malia, she was there when Rose's soul was put back into one piece, and she never thought to consider that she wasn't entirely whole? I mean there could have been a rift within her soul still. She has never Wandered long before she was Reincarnated. Even when her sould was split. She simply had too much love of lie to Wander.

"I didn't consider it. Rose ahs been quite sane the entire time I've known her. And you know this is her third life I've been around for. She is very dear to me, and she is quite whole," Malia's voice was icy. I hadn't broken the Code, but I had questioned her, and that was almost as bad. I stood, and bowed, then I left the room. I hate being at the end of her icy glares, just as much as many hated being at the end of my burning ones.

I sat outside and waited for them to finish. I knew no one was going to bother with me. It wasn't important enough, but I had to wonder who the darkly glittering queen was. She was a mystery to me, and yet the answer seemed to be just on the tip of my tongue, if only I could let it out.

"What was that about?" It was Hannah. She sat down next to me, even though I didn't ask her to.

"I'm worried. Something's been off all along. I didn't concern myself until now, but the Power here is rather skewed, and I assumed that it was a simple problem, easily remedied. But I think you all are well out numbered; will you remember that and go into a fight with caution? The balance is shifting even farther from our favor, and I fear if it moves much farther, nothing we do will be able to fix it," I turned from her face and focused instead in front of me.


	3. Chapter 3

Act I, Chapter III

A New Friend

"I know you," I said matter of factly as I looked at this girl who I had actually never met before.

"You do? Well of course you do, if you are who I think you are," She said looking at me with those stupid dark brown eyes.

"I haven't seen you in quite some time. What have you been doing?"

"Oh, I was in college for awhile, but then I got an call from my older brother saying that Megan had been hurt somehow and lost two of her senses. So I came rushing here, stayed for a few weeks, but when she started getting better I left again. But then at the start of the new term I had to go and Wake Up. Then I got an email saying Megan's missing, so I'm back, even though my loyalty lies with Joan," She said pushing hair out of her face.

"Well, Naria, I suppose you'd like to know that I have yet to see Joan, and as such, I'm rather hoping you'll help us find Rose instead," I told her with s sternness to my voice. While she may be physically older than me, I am mentally older than her. The only person I've come across mentally older than me would be Malia, and we don't get along.

"I really would prefer it if you didn't call me Naria, I don't really remember much from that life. Just enough to know that my loyalty is with Joan, and that my name was Naria," She said quietly. This was a bit subdued or the Naria I remembered, but I didn't doubt for a second that this was her.

"Then what should I call you if not by the name you are remembered by?" I asked. Naria was a very pretty woman. She was in her early twenties, and her hair was brown, lighter than her eyes, but still on the dark end of the range. There was a hint of red to her hair, that reminded me of someone else, but I couldn't tell you who it reminded me of. But I think whoever it is was someone I knew in this life.

"Lauren would be good," She said pushing the shorter hair in front back. It wouldn't stay back because it was too short to tuck behind her ears.

"I can see why Megan was friends with all of you," Lauren said as she turned her head back and forth looking at the entire gang.

"What?"

"She's been watching Sailor Moon since she was four. I think she referred to herself as an 'otaku' whatever that means," Lauren continued.

"That show she kept talking about? I've really never heard of it," Ami said looking confused. I had yet to figure out how these idiots had never heard of the show, I mean it was named after them. But somehow there was a distortion, so they had never heard of it, and no one had noticed the similarities. But I couldn't see who could cause such a distortion. To cover even all of Tokyo it would take a lot of power, and to keep them all in the dark it would really have to cover al of Japan, and parts of China, possibly even all of Asia, because to make sure no one would notice it would have to cover vast spaces. It obviously didn't cover the entire planet, or Megan, Lauren, Corey, Hannah, Malia and myself would all have been affected. It really made you wonder.

"I never liked it, it was too simple, and cute. Too much twirling, dancing and dusty bad guys. I was too old when it came out. Or perhaps too mature," Lauren sounded so calm. Somehow she didn't seem to match the way Megan had always described her older sister. Megan was always saying that she had to hurry, because Lauren had sharp knives. Or that Lauren was being nice, so we had to get the bunker ready. I wonder if the change from Megan's descriptions was Naria, or was it just that Megan had exaggerated?

"Twirling? But I don't twirl," Usagi said with her head cocked to one side.

"Yes you do," The rest of us said in unison. Her powers seemed to have dramatic words and tons of twirling to all of them, the rest of them at least didn't twirl as much. I love that Usagi looked so indignant at that.

"No I don't,"

"Yes you do," Rei argued.

"I don't," Usagi was being more forceful, that's a rare thing.

"Yes you do," Rei cried out loudly. It all went downhill from there. It continued on to the point that they were blowing raspberries, again. Luna had to break them up, per normal.

"Yes, just like Megan's show," Lauren said under her breath. I'm surprised that Lauren had even seen enough to know that. But of course the same could be said for me.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Luna said looking highly embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it, when you care about someone who is so unlike you, you sometimes have to fight. That's how it always was with me and Megan, a constant give and take. Usagi and Rei are Just as close as me and Megan, I think it's nice that they can be that close, when they are so obviously different," Lauren looked a bit sad as she smiled. I think she misses Megan. Perhaps the things Megan used to say about her were in their own way true, but at the same time they were horrible exaggerations. I think that must be it.

"Where are you staying? I didn't think you would be staying with your family, since you never told them you would come," I asked Lauren after we left the group. We had done nothing more after Lauren's heartfelt words Mostly because Usagi and Rei started fighting again.

"I found a fairly cheap apartment, so I'm staying there for the time being. I really want to find her, but I don't want to deal with my family," Lauren looked so sad as she said this. I guess she doesn't have those weird mood swings which are so commonplace for Megan.

"Okay, but how are you paying for it?" I asked a little concerned.

"I got a job as a substitute teacher in the elementary school. It may be a little hard for me because my Japanese isn't that great, but my English and French are pretty good, and I can speak a little German. I'm very good in math and science, so they shouldn't be hard, the Japanese use Arabic numerals as well as their own Japanese symbols," Lauren said watching the ground as she walked.

"Oh, I guess you'll be okay then. But I'll come help you whenever I can, I think you'll need it," I offered as we reached my apartment building. I waved to her from the doorway and made my way inside. My apartment was fairly small, and on the tenth floor of the building. My parents were paying for it, so I didn't much care how much it cost. But I knew it cost a lot more than whatever Lauren's did.

"More chips?" I asked in disbelief as Usagi came back up to her room. I'm not sure why we were all meeting at her house, what with her brother and both her parents looking over our shoulders half the time.

"Of course, they were all gone," Usagi said as if the simplest thing in the world.

"Because you ate them all," Rei said snidely. Of course then the raspberries started again. How did these people ever get anything done?

"Perhaps we should continue on our plan of how to find Mami?" Luna suggested into the midst of the fighting. Instantly they stopped and turned serious.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Usagi said sadly. Sad? Usagi? What's wrong with this picture?

"But what can we do? The fire reading didn't really tell us anything, the mirror's blank, Pluto's silent and Mico's off. What can we do?" Hannah said sounding utterly depressed.

"We use my power I'm linked to her," Malia said calmly and then took a bite out of the chip in her hand, scatter crumbs all over her lap.

"I didn't know you could do that," Corey said looking hopeful, but not sounding it.

"You're going to trace the lock, aren't you?" I said without looking at her.

"Yes,"

"Won't that be painful for you? Wasn't it a sense of hopelessness that drove you there, would it not consume you again?" I asked still not looking at her.

"It would, unless I can have the help of the warm light of the Imperium Silver Crystal," Malia said still sounding stately and calm, as always.

"You know the control possible for such a strong soul is very limited, You wouldn't even know if she can do it, until she tries at least. And that could be fatal for both parties. It would be much smarter to allow me to use my power, it's better controlled," I told her still staring at the whirls in the wooden table in front of me.

"Yes, but you don't have enough," I looked up with one of my patent make-the-other-person-want-to-crawl-under-a-rock glares. She was giving me her icy stare. I looked away.

"We need Elizabeth," I said after a moment of complete silence.

"It's unlikely she would have been reborn. She had such a strange life last time around, I suspect she's Wandering, it was always more of her nature anyway," Malia refuted my idea.

"What about Ivy?" I asked gently. I knew better than to push her in this subject.

"No,"

"Why not? She could help. She might have had a change of heart this time around," I suggested.

"No, I mean it, don't bring it up again," I shut my mouth and it stayed shut as everyone cast new ideas out.

"Who is Ivy?" Lauren asked me as we walked towards her apartment. Both hers and mine are in the same direction from usagi's house, and hers in closer.

"She's the oldest Immortal,"

"I thought Malia was the oldest. I could have sworn I heard one o you guys say something about Malia being the 'oldest sister'," Lauren was confused, and who would blame her? It confused me at first too.

"Malia is the Eldest Sister, but she is the second oldest Immortal. You see Ivy was born along with our world, and she died with it as well. She's what we called the Interpreter. She could understand the speech of animals and plants as well as every human language. She could also turn into any animal or plant you could imagine. There were vines that grew in her hair, and she would change her hairstyle by asking the plants to move the strands of hair. She could have just made it move all on it's own, but instead she liked to let the vines grow and move. Ivy was good friends with Joan, because both of them were God-Touched," I explained fondly. I had liked Ivy. Ivy stayed in the palace at the time that Joan was there was a page. Ivy stayed as a small cat with bright green eyes, and soft fur. Ivy used to sit with me for hours while I was in council with the high and mighty of Meapation.

"Oh, then how come she isn't one of the sisters?" Lauren asked with a strong curiosity. I had forgotten that about Naria.

"Malia wanted her to be one, but she refused. And it's been Malia's idea ever since that since Ivy didn't want to be one of the sisters, then she didn't want to be part of the magical community of Meapation. Malia even managed to get it so that Ivy wasn't allowed within the palace without express business there. It sort of became a taboo for Ivy to be allowed within any kind of dwelling. But I don't think that she ever minded. She used to live in the branches of the Tree of Royalty. She was a very funny woman," I told her with a smile on my lips. I really missed that strange woman who was nearly ten times my age (when I died) when she died. She knew all kinds of things the rest of us only ever pondered at, because no one had ever lived as long as she had. And no records that we could find were as old as her either.

"That's stupid. If Ivy's as old as you say, then she would be invaluable to you!" Lauren said passionately. That girl is very strange as well.


	4. Chapter 4

Act II, Chapter I

Old Memories

"_You know, you should remember me. We go way back. But of course, I was a bit different then," It was the ominous woman with dark hair and eyes. She was looking down at me with a look of contempt._

"_How far back?" I asked watching her dark eyes. I couldn't see the seam between her pupils and irises._

"_Oh, very far back. So far back I couldn't even remember it. But I killed you then too," She had very white teeth. I remark on this because she gave me a very evil looking, rather toothy grin._

"_You couldn't remember it? Why not?" I was very calm, I didn't feel afraid of her at all, even though she was threatening to kill me. I couldn't guess why I wasn't afraid of her, her Power was billowing off her in waves. Big silver-blue tinted black clouds._

_That would be the color of her Power. Mages usually wore a color similar to that of their power. It was always more comfortable that way. That is why I typically dressed myself in silver and black. My power is black tinged silver. Basically the opposite of this girl. But her color had more blue to it than mine. In fact it might not have been pure black, but rather a very dark blue. I could never tell the difference._

"_I think it's time for you to wake up," She said cruelly. But then her voice and tone changed completely, "Please, please wake-up."_

_She was pleading with me. Her eyes were brown, I could see that now. Because her eyes had suddenly changed to a chocolate brown. Then I woke up._

"You're out of it," Corey said knocking lightly on my head.

"No I'm not. The bell rang, you should hurry, you might be late to the meeting," I told her staring strait ahead.

"You're supposed to be there too you know," Corey said placing her hands on her hips.

"Yes, but you can't use your Power for anything, while I can. It's a good way off," I told her still staring forward.

"Don't care," She said and grabbed my arm pulling me up. What a pain she was. What with being nearly as strong as Makoto or Haruka.

She dragged me along for several blocks before I was able to get out of her grasp. When I did I walked several feet away from her, to make sure no one thought I knew her. She really was a pain. I hadn't actually been planning on coming. I was going to do some actual magic to see if I could find Megan that way. But no, she had to drag me off.

"You two are late," Emma said in a strong imitation of Rei. The meeting was at Rei's temple. We decided it was really the only place large enough for all of us.

"No, we're exactly half of a second early," I told her staring strait at her turquoise colored eyes.

"No, you're late. The time got changed. Corey should have told you. We were meeting at four instead of four thirty," Emma did pale a little under my stare though. Perhaps she's beginning to remember her last life? Or maybe she was only remembering it day by day? I guess that would make sense I didn't actually meet Emma until she was nearly eight years old.

"Yes, well your clock must be fast," I said showing my watch. It said exactly 4:01. Emma stared at it a minute and pulled a small clock out of the inside of her sleeve. It was shaped like a rose, and it's hands were made to look like small rose buds. It had a pin on the back, and the clock had been pinned to the inside of her sleeve. I could see why it would be hidden though, it was made completely out of gem stones. If I recall correctly I had seen that exact watch pinned to Emma's belt the day I met her (in our last lives).

Emma's clock also said 4:01.

"But, it said 4:29 just a minute ago. I'm sure of it," Emma touched the small emerald leaf and pushed it down a little. The clock folded up like a rose bud and opened again with another push of the emerald leaf. The clock still said 4:01.

Emma pinned the clock back on the inside of her sleeve, deftly without pulling a single thread out of place (Emma was wearing a knitted top and the sleeves had small holes all along their length in intricate patterns). Then Emma ran off towards a smaller shrine in the small woods on the grounds, where we had agreed to meet.

Corey and I followed at a slower pace. We were just getting to the trees when the entire world shifted around me. Just me though, Corey was gone, and so were the woods. I was all alone. I was in a place I knew very well, but at the same time I didn't know anything about it. What a wonderful way to continue a horrible day.

The ruins were complete, there was no life anywhere. All I could see that told me these were ruins rather than just a heap of rock was the carvings on some of the rocks. And of course the few shattered pieces of glass that I guessed from their shapes were once beakers, cylinders, test tubes, stirring rods, and the like. But stranger yet were the obviously magical instruments which were unharmed, but lying in the wreckage, completely untouched.

Pieces of fabric lay half decayed in the still air. I saw a few pieces of wood, which hadn't been touched by weathering, bugs, or animals. One piece was so beautifully carved like a dove, but it was splintered from its other pieces. There was a puddle of strangely colored liquid in the spot where one piece of stone had broken from the wall.

Partway under a huge boulder was an intricately carved woman who was forever caught in a light breeze, just ruffling her hair and dress. The only sign that there was ever any kind of weather in this desolate place. Or perhaps they had only seen a breeze in a different place, far from here.

What truly worried me about this place is that the it seemed familiar, as if I had seen this place before. But I knew that in neither of my lives had I ever crossed such a desolate place. In fact of the places I had lived, they had all been beautiful in their own way. And I suppose this place was once beautiful, but it wasn't anymore.

"Do you remember me yet?" It was that woman. The one I had seen twice now, but never before that.

"No, who are you?" I asked looking up at her. She was different. She wore her hair up in a strangely intricate work. Every hair had it's own part to play in the curled pinned, and well planned hair. Her dress was likewise well planned and intricate. It had lacework, beading, and layers of fabric of different types.

"Ah, I suppose I will have to simply jolt it won't I?" She said with a sigh. She flicked her hand and everything changed.

"_Lena? Lena? Did you fall asleep again? You know you're never going to get chosen if you don't stay awake," Oh, it was only Lela. Lela was part of my year, but she didn't have a clue what she was doing. Lela was far too concerned about her looks, even for someone from Narderat. I think she got up super early everyday, just to make sure she used every single one of her strait hairs, she couldn't stand how strait her hair was, so she curled, every single hair. She never missed even one._

"_And you'll never get chosen if you don't study," I said lifting my head from my table. My hair was much shorter than Lela's and I never did more than brush through it once or twice in the mornings. Of course I'm from Manderat._

"_Ah, I don't really care. I'm going to return to Narderat before too long anyway," Lela said cheerfully. Narderat was a long ways from here, my native home of Manderat. Manderat was the capital of learning in all the worlds. And that was how The Mother had planned it. Narderat was supposed to be a place of unsurpassed beauty, even the ugliest person there was prettier than me. Perhaps telling you that Lela was considered among the ten prettiest people in Narderat will put it into perspective the difference between us. _

_Manderat on the other hand didn't have beautiful people, we had smart, and powerful people. I was both. In fact people were concerned what I could do with all the power I had inside me. They were even more so concerned about Lela, she was more powerful than any other person in all the Worlds of the Doors._

"_But, what about your power? If you can't control it they won't let you go back. You know they don't let anyone even leave this section of the city unless they can control their power fairly well. You can't even leave the school grounds! You've been here for years, and you still can't control yourself even that much. Whereas I study, and I can wander the city however I wish. I can't leave the World yet, but someday I will," I scolded her._

"_I'm fine. What is there outside of the school anyway? I've got plenty of good looking guys right here," Did I forget to mention Lela loves cute guys. But they have to be as smart as her, which is hard to find anywhere but here._

"_That's going to be your downfall you know," I said seriously. I have prophesied for a test a few weeks ago. And I had gotten caught up in a really strong one. It told of Lela's death, and there was something about a guy in it. But it wasn't very clear. When the next person tied to see past what I got, they received noting. So my prophecy of Lela was a really big one. You can never see past really big events until they happen._

I was in the ruins again.

"That was a few days before…before I met Him," I now knew the woman was Lela, she was my best friend when the Worlds were still young. In fact at the time of that memory the Worlds had only been around for around fifty years. Now they had been around for about 99 trillion years or so. I may be off by a few billion years.

"And when he rejected you the world stopped existing for you, and so your will made it happen," I finished for her.

"Yes, but now I'm going to finish what I started back then. I'm going to find him, and I'm going to make him mine," Lela's voice was filled with wrath. That was something I had never heard from her.

"How are you going to do that. Lela, he's nothing. Could you not find another man? I'm sure you have in the years since that day," I suggested softly.

"No, when I was Wandering…When I Wandering I split my soul. I wanted to find him, but I was too afraid of what would happen if I was reborn. What has happened before now, that was not true life for me. That was only a pale copy, a remnant of what I am, what I am meant to be," Lela sounded like she was on the brink of tears.

"Lela, why were you the one shown in the fire reading? And why, why were you wearing the Crown," I asked my own voice unsteady.

"The Crown? Oh, do you mean that thing I made all those years ago? It was the only test I ever passed! Don't you remember Lena? You were my best friend. I made two, I gave one to you, and I kept the other one," She said eagerly.

"Yeah…I got the blue one, and you got the black one. You destroyed the world just as I was coming back from visiting Nathan," I said slowly remembering the details of those days. It was so long ago, that life.

"I was so upset that you left the crown I made for you that day, and that you visited Narderat without me. And to visit our bet friend Nathan besides! That's why I killed with my bare hands," Lela's voice was cold now.

"Michelle! Mich-" A very different voice came from Lela for a moment. It cut off silently and was replaced by Lela panting as if she couldn't get enough breath into her lungs.

"Lela? Are you okay?" I asked concerned for my old friend.

"Go…leave…the…Door…is open…for…you," Lela forced out between pants I turned to see a basic paper door behind me. Just before I went through I looked back at the rapidly panting Lela. She waved to me with a smile, then gave me a cruel glare. What was wrong with her?

"Michelle! Michelle!" I heard people calling me as I found myself kneeling in the dimming light.

"I'm over here," I called weakly. Stupid Lela, she used my power instead of the world around her. That proved it to me that she was who she said she was.

"Michelle, what happened?" Malia asked seriously as she stepped through trees to get to where I was collapsed.

"It's her Malia, It's her," I got out before I collapsed. Stupid Lela


	5. Chapter 5

Act II, Chapter II

Explanations

"Hhhuumm, I hate you Lela," I muttered as I woke up with a horrible headache.

"What did you say?" Malia said with a sort of growl behind her voice.

"Stupid Lela. She really should have studied. I always told her, and she always ignored me," I muttered sitting up slowly while clutching my head. It felt like what I imagined a hangover to be like.

"Who?" Malia was seriously mad now.

"Lela…Manderschick I think. She was a friend of mine at the beginning of the worlds. She was the one who destroyed Manderat," I said still clutching my head.

"She was also the one who brought about Death," I seriously think that Malia was seriously growling. At least there was a sound coming from the back of her throat.

"What?"

"There was no death in the Mother's plans. But she gave Lela too much power. Lela's heart was broken by Laurent's rejection of her. He was afraid of how much power she had. She should have just stayed with Nathan, none of it would have happened then. Yes, Lela was very stupid. But she split her soul. I watched all the drama take place back then. I watched you be murdered by your best friend. I saw it all. I even watched as she split her soul three ways," Malia said. I seriously hear growling. But I also heard a gasp. Which made me turn my head and see that everyone was sitting there. Usagi looked like she wanted to comfort me.

"She said something about that," I said slowly.

"Yes, the three parts of her soul were always separate after that," Malia said slowly.

"What happened, after you disappeared?" Corey asked a little haltingly.

"I was taken to Manderat, by Lela," I told them everything. I told them about the ruins, and my vision, the prophecy from back then; everything.

"Then what happened to her three pieces of soul?" Ami asked quietly.

"I don't-" I started, but Malia cut me off.

"They were reborn. None of the three parts had more Power than, Emma I suppose is a good example. One part had all her maturity, and all her 'evil' emotions, such as rage or wrath. The second part had all her optimism, and most of her 'good' emotions, such as love, sadness, melancholy, happiness, and trust; the non destructive emotions. Or at least the emotions that couldn't hurt anyone other than herself. The third part was her pessimism, but it had no true emotions. It was pessimism only in the fact that it could not see the world as a good place, but it didn't see the world as a bad place either. Two of those pieces were combined hundreds of years go, I think it's close on a thousand. But the third piece has always been separate until now," Malia explained solemnly

"Wait, then…you're saying that…you mean?" I'm sure Lan couldn't figure out how to phrase the question that was in all our thoughts, except maybe Malia's.

"Yes, two pieces of Lela's soul made up Queens Rose I and II, and also Megan or Mami," Malia said calmly. Why the hell hadn't she told us this before?

Just as I was about to vocalize my complaint Emma made a weird yelping noise. We all turned to look at her, but she was fading into sparkles of light. We should have known this would happen. But strangely after the sparkles of light disappeared the little rose clock was still there.

Usagi picked up the clock as we all fought back tears. Lan had lost that battle, and tears were running down his face. She fingered the smooth petals of the flower. Then handed it to Lan, who held it to his chest. But when he looked at it, he gasped.

What now?

"Rose…it's a rose…I gave this to Rose," Lan said string at the clock.

"What?" I asked taking the clock from his fingers. But it wasn't a clock anymore. From the moment I touched it, it closed up and became a rose bud. Inside the bud was an hour glass. But no sand was moving in it. I felt I needed it, and I pinned it to the inside of my sleeve.

"_Lena! Come over and play with me!" Lela said happily. That girl, if those are play clothes…they're better than anything I own anyway._

"_Perhaps you should study instead?" I suggested calmly._

"_Oh, that's no fun! I want to do something fun!" Lela was such a ditz._

"_I'm going to be off planet for the rest of the week starting tomorrow, so I suppose I'll be able to 'play' with you today. But only if you promise to study," I told her brandishing my finger in her face a little._

"_I promise," Lela said sullenly. She hated it when I went to a different World, because she was stuck here, but if she just studied as I continuously told her to, then she would be able to Travel through the Doors, just like me. In fact she would be better at it than me, she's the best in our class when it comes to finding Doors, and deciphering their Details. In fact she doesn't even have to use a Finding spell like the rest of us._

_That day Lela had finally passed a test. So she decided that the results of that test should be shared between the two of us. That means the strange blue stone crown was given to me, and the black stone crown was worn proudly on top of Lela's head. People stopped to star at us. A lot._

"_Lena, why don't you wear that crown? I think it's very pretty," Lela said looking at the crown in my hand. I sighed and placed it on my head. Lela then moved it forward and to the side, then she pulled several loops of my hair, so that she could make it stay on my head with them. Surprisingly it looked really good when she was finished, and it only took her a few seconds and a couple of pins. Maybe she didn't spend quite as much time as I thought on her hair._

"_What test were these crowns for anyway?" I asked as we started walking again. _

_We were going through the second floor on the North wing, so there wasn't anything magnificent about it. It was a rather simple place, made from brick, and stucco. Or at least this wing was. The Front Hall, Grand Hall, and all the Meeting Halls were in the middle part of the campus, and they were made of stone, with soaring arches, and high windows. Colored glass and clear glass both covered the windows, and panels in all the doors. I suppose this campus is simply a strange combination of every type of architecture in the Worlds._

"_A test in prophecy," She said with a smile. I think the smile was supposed to be mysterious, but Lela doesn't do mysterious very well._

"_Then how did you pass by making some weird crowns?" I asked pushing a stray piece of hair from my face; Lela put it right back where it had been._

"_Because, these crowns will affect history, a long time from now. I think it's trillions of years from now," Lela said smiling._

"_How did you see past the gap in prophecy?" _

"_I am the gap in prophecy, so why can't I see past myself?" Lela is a very strange girl, but also a very smart one._

"_I wouldn't know So I suppose you would see past yourself, but you can't see yourself without a mirror can you?" This was swiftly turning into a philosophical conversation. Lela would be happy, those are her favorite kind._

"_Yes, isn't that what everyone else does? Lets you see yourself, so that you can see past yourself?" Lela's logic was always a little skewed._

"_Isn't that a bit self-centered?" I asked a little helplessly._

"_Of course! What do you expect of a princess?" Yes, she really is a full blown princess, sorry if I forgot to mention that one. She's supposed to one day rule Narderat. Of course that's only if she an pass, which I doubt she can._

_I just sighed at her and shook my head a bit sadly._

"_Thanks Nathan for helping me pack. Did I forget anything?" I asked looking around the room a week later. I was on Narderat, and I knew that Lela had to be steamed at me, but I was here for business, of a sort._

"_No I don't think so. I'm pretty sure we got everything," He said gently. Nathan was a really nice guy. I wish that Lela could only see that he's crazy about her, then she might stop looking at the other guys on campus, I know it breaks Nathan's heart._

"_Then I guess you should be going then," Nathan said as we started out towards the Door Terminal, it was just over the crest from Nathan's house. But Nathan's 'house' is really more or a manor, or a castle. But anyways._

"_Thanks for seeing me off," I said and kissed him on the cheek. He smiled and kissed my cheek. Then I turned around and went through the Door to the South Wing of the Campus._

_As soon as I stepped foot out of the Door I knew something was wrong. I saw smoke a short bit away, and I think I heard yelling and screaming. I dropped my bag and made a mad dash towards the Front Hall, where the smoke was coming from. What I saw there stopped me in my tracks. The walls had fallen over, pillars were broken into pieces, windows and doors were shattered, and something was on fire. I looked around and saw a figure in the middle of the flames._

_I knew that hair, and that dress. I wondered why the flames weren't burning everything. But what I saw was Lela. She looked so sad, I think she was crying, but the heat of the flames was carrying away the moisture. I ran right to the edge of the flames, even though I could feel my skin blistering._

"_Lela! Lela! What happened!?" I cried through the roaring of the flames eating away at everything they could find._

"_Laurent," She said in a pitiful voice. The words were nearly lost in the roar._

"_Who is Laurent?" I asked edging closer to the flames; closer to Lela._

"_Lena? Is that Lena?" The flames were dying down a bit. I wonder why? Maybe they had consumed everything they could. Because they obviously couldn't get at lela, or she would be dead by now._

"_Yes, Lela It's me!' I called back to her. Even with the flames dying they were pretty loud._

"_You…you left me. You betrayed me!" Lela cried angrily. She reached through the remaining flames and grabbed my throat, both with her hands, and her magic. She started squeezing, cutting off air to my lungs. I couldn't move, but I couldn't get a breath, and the flames were around my feet, they were burning, blistering. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't get the air to do it, nor could I get any out._

"_How could you leave me? How could you go to my home and leave me. And right when I needed you. It's all your fault! It's all your fault. Laurent was perfect1 We were perfect! But he didn't like me, he left you, and you left me! I'm all alone, all alone," Lela was screaming and crying, with a bit of sobbing towards the end. Laurent? Who was Laurent. I'm sure I knew him, but I couldn't remember. There wasn't enough air. Too much heat._

_I guess this was my end. I'm not sure what comes after dying, no one has ever died before. We all understand that dying will happen, someday. But no one has died. Not even the older people, who are in their fifties and sixties. They have a couple of hundred years left. I have close to a thousand years left. But now I don't have any life at all. Well I have a few seconds, but that's all._

_I mouthed the words 'good-bye Lela, I'm sure we'll meet again, and then we'll be friends again. I forgive you'. I wish I could have gotten the words to come out properly, but at least I got it mouthed. I smiled, and let myself fall into the blackness._

I woke gasping for breath. What a horrible dream to have. Why did I have to remember that? Of my lives I'm sure that's the worst memory Much worse than when I killed myself, I just stopped my heart then.

"What's wrong now?" Corey asked when she saw me in school.

"I had a dream, in which I relived the last few moments of my first life," I told her with my head pillowed into my arms.

"Um…How many lives have you had?"

"This is my third. And both of the last two ended rather tragically, so I expect this one will do the same," I didn't move anything but my mouth as I said this.

"What happened in your last life?"

"I got too deep into a major political issue, I involved myself emotionally, and so the only logical way out of a situation that would have ended up destroying everything was to kill myself. I simply stopped my heart,"

"What did you do that it would have ended everything?"

"I found the third piece of Lena's soul. It was the piece that was ruthless, cruel, and wrathful. But I knew it was Lena anyway. When I realized that I could cause the three pieces to reunite I killed myself. She could have ended up destroying the entire universe. We got off lucky those years back that she wanted to kill herself more than anything else," I told her Then turned my face into my arms and ignored her questions. I was going to do a Finding Spell for her, if she's as clueless as she used to be, it shouldn't be hard to lock on her.


	6. Chapter 6

Act II, Chapter III

Find Spells and What They Cause

I drew the first emblem in chalk. It was sort of like the rough draft. The second emblem was drawn without touching the first in a different color of chalk. The third twined through the second's lines, but this too was in a different color. The fourth emblem was drawn twining through the first and third emblem. The last emblem twined through all the emblems holding them together. In the center of the twisting and twining lines was an open space. I carefully filled this space with beach sand; I couldn't get a single grain out of this open space.

Next I drew over the chalk lines with coarse salt. Every line had to be covered in the same order it was first drawn in. At this point the sand started getting paler. The next step was to put candles in a circle around the figure but I left a space where several more candles would be placed.

I drew the lines again from the now pristinely white sand again. This time it was with water, which dissolved some of the salt, and some of the chalk. By this time the sand had taken on the brilliance of staring at new snow, which hadn't started to melt, at midday, when the sun was at its brightest.

I put the last few candles in place, and I lit all of them, going in the sun wise direction. Then I poured salt over all the candles in a counter-sun wise direction. The candle burned up brighter.

The last of the salt was placed on the sand in front of me. The lines began to glow with the color of my magic; silver tinged black. Now comes the hard part.

"My dear friend. The one I have followed through lives. The one who has killed me, and mourned me. The one who has found love, and lost love, who has loved me. My best friend, my sister. The best person I know. Lela, Rose, Megan, Mami. No matter the name, I will find you. Please Sister come to me?" I called off into my dimly lit apartment. I couldn't see beyond my ring of fire, but I knew the apartment was there. It was simply an illusion that I was floating in a void of white.

"Lena? Where am I?" I hear Lela's voice sound out unsurely.

"In my Finding Spell," I told her voice looking through the blank whiteness. The problem with a Finding Spell, was that if I moved from my circle of sand I would be pulled into the mind of the person I was Finding for. Of course this only happens when you're Finding for a human. Anything else and I could use a simpler form, which would allow me to find her physical form, but I wouldn't be able to help with her mental state. Which to tell the truth was pretty screwed up right now.

"Then, you're in my mind. Lena, Do you remember Laurent?" Lela asked with a bit of her dreamy self to the words.

"I know the name. But I can't put a face to it. Who was he? I know he was important," I said as Lela started to pull a form together.

"Laurent was the perfect guy. He loved me, I know he did. No matter what he said. I know he loved me. Just like Nathan loved me. But I didn't love Nathan. Can you tell him that?" Lela asked tilting her head to the side.

Lela screamed in pain. I wanted to rush her, but I couldn't. Her form started to waver. Then it split. Now there was Lela, and Rose gasping for breath, Megan and Mami were there as well. Not to mention Sailor Rose. How many people can fit in this girl's head?

You may wonder how I can tell Megan and Mami apart.

Well Megan was wearing her favorite dress which used to be her mother's. It looked a little formal with all that lace, but that's Megan for you. Plus her hair was only to her chin, and parted to the side, with all the hair tucked behind her ears. This is the way I have always thought of Megan.

But Mami wore her hair just past her shoulders, with annoyingly long side bangs half covering her eyes on the left side. Besides she was wearing glasses. Surprisingly she was the only one of the group who wore glasses. Well unless you count Sailor Rose's visor.

"Hey Livi-chin!" Megan said happily waving to me.

"Hello Michelle, it's been far too long since we've talked," Princess Rose said primly. She was probably still mad about my whole suicide thing.

"Hi Livi, or Michelle, or whoever you are," Mami said with a light smile.

Sailor Rose just stood there stock still.

"So I'm going to have to sort all of you out. You see you are split into five, when you should be only one. And Lela I would like to take this moment to blame everything on you," I said standing up in my little space. The world around me was shifting. It seems that every one of them was trying to get some dominance in this world.

There was black (for Lela), silver (for Rose), two shades of blue (for Megan and Mami), and pink (for Sailor Rose). I think the easiest thing to start with will be to combine the two most similar. That would be Megan and Mami.

I concentrated my power and sent out a short of my black and silver power. I lassoed Megan and Mami. I pulled the two together, then began melding them into one. It was turning out to be harder than I thought. I was panting as I pulled the identical traits together without disrupting the dissimilar traits. It was harder than it sounds. It wasn't just a matching game like it sounds. Because I have to know these two people as well as I know myself, so I have to review al their memories and thoughts. As I suspected they were simpler than it would be to try to pull say Rose and Sailor Rose together. You see Megan and Mami had the same childhood. They didn't begin to diverge until a bit over a year ago. So by pulling together all of those years I could more easily find all the things in the last year that are different.

When I was finished with them Megan was standing there, except her hair was a tiny bit longer (not as long as Mami's was) and she wore bangs, but they were your standard fringe, not side bangs like Mami wore.

Now I began in on Megan and Rose. They would be easier than Megan and anyone else, because Megan knows Rose as well as she knows herself, but she had always made Rose a separate person when she wasn't. That was where I was going to have trouble, they were going to fight me on this one. I repeated the procedure on them. But when I was done the difference was that Megan's hair had grown down past Mami's, but not as long as Rose's and she had a tattoo on her chest. Not to mention the ring on her index finger. I'll have to ask her about that one, because Megan was the only one who wasn't wearing it. Where had Lela gotten one?

I sat and panted for awhile. Holding the spell in place was getting really tiring. I was afraid I'd have to release it, and start again later. But at least I've managed to pull three pieces of her together, without the strange divergences that pulling her soul together before had caused.

"Livi-chin, you're going to have to leave," Megan told me with a soft look in her eyes, "Go get some rest, and you can come finish later, we'll still be here. By combining the three of us we have enough power to hold even Lela off for a little bit But you're going to have to rest, so you can finish."

I stood and nodded. I waved and cast a bit of magic which made all the candles go out at once. Then I had to use more to take up all the water, then the salt, then the sand, then the chalk. It was very important that a spell was deconstructed the exact opposite of how it was constructed. But I was so tired I fell onto the floor fast asleep as soon as I got the spell completely destroyed.

"Michelle, are you okay?" Lauren asked as the two of us sat in a café. I think I fell asleep for a minute there.

"Yeah, I just did a major working last night. I'm really tired," I said with a huge yawn. I didn't do it on purpose but it was perfectly timed.

"What major working?" I love how she skips wondering if I need to go home and get some sleep.

"I cast a Finding Spell for Lela, or Rose, or Megan, or Mami, or whatever the hell her name is," I stuck my face to the table; hard.

"Really? So did you find her?" Oh so excitable.

"I found her mind. This version of a Finding Spell won't give me her physical position until she has only one mental position. As it stands she currently has three. She had five, but I managed to get her straightened up, a little at least," I said all of this with the side of my face plastered to the table. The table was plastic, and so my face was quite firmly stuck there.

"So you'll be able to find her soon, right?"

"Yeah, I just have to rest a while. Lots of sleep and food. Like getting over being sick for a long time," I told her with another yawn.

"Then you should be home, not talking to me," Lauren said standing up. She then dragged me up, paid for our drinks and dragged me back to my apartment. I wonder is Lauren or her little sister is more annoying.

"Hello, I'm Krista," I strangely pretty woman told me that day. I knew as soon as I saw her that she was Lela. Not all of Lela. But rather one third of her. I still wonder what would have happened if I hadn't ever met her. Would I have died in some war? Or would I have died in the end of the world, like Malia, and Ivy?

Somehow I still don't know what happened to Krista. She obviously doesn't have a very large hold over Lela's mind. I wonder why. Was it that she just wasn't important, like any of the lives her other two thirds lived before Rose I? I suppose that's possible. But Krista was a purely cruel person.

The only reason I knew she was Lela, was that I could see my death in her eyes. I suppose that Lela has killed me twice hasn't she?

"Hey Michelle? Lauren said that you found Megan," Corey said as I half slept through lunch.

"I found her mind," I corrected my face pillowed in my arms.

"So you know where she is right?"

"No, I couldn't tell you where she is, except she was only a step from true madness again. I've brought a certain amount of calm to her mind, but I don't think it will be enough without any help. Because I have to finish was I was doing, then I'll need more power to bring true sanity to her. I think you, Hannah, Malia, and Lan would be the best to lend strength. But Usagi could be a great help, especially if she has the backing of the scouts, and Mamoru," I said lifting my head. I know I looked like crap today, I mean who wouldn't when one night of work would need several weeks without any strenuous activity to recover?

"Then you now they'll help, you know that right?" Corey said looking at me a little uneasily. I guess I can understand why. I mean I've had my head pillowed all day, and I got here before her. Plus I haven't done a major working since my last life. And I only did maybe twenty at the most the entire time. I have less Power in this life, because of _that_.

I'm not sure why Malia didn't do _that_. And I can't remember how I did it. But somehow I did. I guess I'm not really a Sister anymore, because of _that_.

Because of _that_ I'm no longer Immortal, and my Power is lower. But that was the price to pay in hopes of a more peaceful, less tormented life. Of course this life is just as tormented, and lacked in peace just as much as the last one.


	7. Chapter 7

Act II, Chapter IV

Complete Melding

"May I stay and help?" Corey asked as I began sketching the third emblem. Why did she think I had let them all stay this long?

"Of course, in fact I'm drawing the emblems very large, so that we may all sit in the center. If you add your power to keep the Finding Spell running, and those others over there help add their power, then we should be able to resolve this fairly quickly," I said gesturing behind me at the crowd standing around the door trying not to get in my room. But my apartment is strangely large for only one person. They would all fit, and still not be in my way as I worked.

"We'd be happy to help!" Usagi proclaimed as she held Mamoru with one arm, and the other hand held onto Chibi-Usa. What a sweet family.

"I thought as much, because you've now told me multiple times," I told her as I curved a line to end the third emblem.

"Well we all want to see her too," Chibi-Usa said in a cheery voice. I'm surprised that Lauren's been very quite. Maybe because she only has her Life Energy to contribute, and she has no way to channel it. So someone will have to add extra power to keep her there. I assume that will be Malia, or Usagi. The two of them will have power to spare.

I continued on with the fourth, then fifth emblems. Then the sand, and the redrawing. Lighting the candles, and letting everyone in the large area of sand. When everything was ready I began calling her.

"Lela! Rose! Megan! Mami! Please lead us to you!" I was much simpler this time. She will be able to respond now. As soon as the whiteness began to change and form a shifting wall of black, blue, silver, and pink. I think the pink will disappear when everything is put back together. Or maybe only black and blue tinged silver will be left. It's quite possible.

"Livi-Chin!" Megan said fading into view.

"Oh! Everyone is here," Sailor Rose commented in a quiet voice.

"Lena, you came back," Lela said fading in.

"Yes, I would like to finish what I started before,"

"Okay, please do!" Megan said with a huge smile. I don't think she saw Lauren, or else she would have been happier I think. But Lauren was behind Pluto, so I can't blame her.

I quickly began to pull Sailor Rose into Megan. Sailor Rose was simply the incarnation of the inner bravery that all of them possess. So it wasn't that hard, but she's been through things that none of the others ever have. But she has also missed out on things that the others experienced. It took a good bit longer than Megan and Mami, but less time than Megan and Rose did. So I suppose it wasn't that bad. But I worried about this last binding. Lena was the most complex soul, and she is also the only one who is capable of cruelty. This scares me, and it will take all the power we have, and a good bit of Nadilire's power as well. Perhaps ever Lena's own power will be required to fix her power at a controllable state.

"Please, Lena, bring me some peace?" Lela asked in a very quite, rather sad voice.

"Of course," I said pulling power from the scouts all around me. I could feel the spell quiver as the scouts gathered what I hadn't taken and use most of it to keep the spell in place. All this power was rather strange.

I could feel their minds as I wove the multi-colored strands and fibers into a rope stronger than anything I had worked with before. Even in my first life when we would work together and I got the job of controlling the fibers, I was never in charge of quite so much power. Everyone of these girls are strong enough that if they didn't have to protection their particular manifestations of their powers gave them, they would have been Immortals. I truly fear what Sailor Moon could do with all that power without her limitation as we all did for what Lela could do.

I formed a lasso using my power to bind it, and tossed it around the two girls. I pulled it tight with the thinnest of fibers of power. Then finally the lasso pulled at them so much they were forced together, cheek to cheek.

Of course that was the problem. They were so different, and so powerful by themselves that they caused visions, and a Complete Melding of all our minds. So not good. I've only done a Complete Melding once, to perform a Healing.

_The fire was so strong. I relished the pain it gave. Ah, so painful. I'm going to die. That's a good thing. I killed Laurent. I don't know why, or how I did it. I can't remember when. But I can see his body through the flames. I can see Lena too. She's dead. I felt her life slip through my fingers._

_What have I done? I can feel the tears dripping down my cheeks. It's time for it all to end. I want it to end._

Lela's memory flickered, and a new one burst in.

"_Who are you?" I asked in my most secure voice. I mean he wasn't going to be able to get me, not without me retaliating._

"_My name is A'Lan," He said. I like his voice. It's not really deep, but you can tell it's a guy's voice. It's silky, and smooth too. He could sing, I'm sure._

"_Nice to meet you 'A'Lan'," I said with a smile on my face. I really like this guy._

Rose II's memory flickered out as well.

_I got off the ride, and went off looking for my family, because while I was occupied with the gruesome clown my dad and my older brother had walked off. There was one doorway, which was flooded with pure white light. I went through it, only to find myself in complete blackness. There was nothing, anywhere. Well until I could see the mirrors. They appeared one at a time, and each reflected me. But some showed a young girl, some me as I was sure I really was. Some showed who I could only guess was me, because they looked older than me, ranging from twenty or so, to a decimated corpse. Then one, right in front of me showed a young woman with blunt cut chin length hair the same color as me, and eyes with the same light brown. But these eyes stared at me with a burning hatred, and that sneering evil looking expression could never be me. She looked like a bad guy. I really hoped I never looked like her._

_Behind me was a girl with slightly longer hair than mine. She had on a rose visor, and a pink and gold microphone and earpiece. She was wearing a fuku, and she was reaching out to me with a look of terror on her face. I reached back for her._

_I found myself ensnared in the villain-looking-me's hands. But fighting off the villain was a girl in a light blue and silver dress. She pulled at the constraining arms with a look of pain on her face._

_I knew this girl. She was a character I had made for one of my stories. She was Rose, the self-same Princess Rose I had created to be me._

_The worst part was I had, had this dream before. But it had been a shadowy figure who restrained me, and no one had come to save me. Maybe I was a little crazier than I had originally thought_

_I screamed in terror and heard a voice which slithered in my mind, "I am you, you are me. And we are entwined."_

_Another voice called out for help. She sounded lonely and fragile._

_Then that opened it up for all the other voices. They ranged from a baby's wail to an old woman's crackling voice. The loudest were the fragile voice, and the slithery snakelike voice._

That was Megan's most dreaded nightmare.

_I guess I screwed up. Again. I guess I can blame my death on Lela again, although I don't want to. She is still my best friend. But I can't continue on like this, if I do, then I think I may disturb the queen's soul._

"_Goodbye Krista," I said looking at the girl's emotionless green eyes. I drew the last line on the floor around me, and my soul and Power were caught up._

_But I wasn't dead yet. Just bound. Most of my Power was bound, I would never again have this much Power, but I don't mind. I never wanted it anyway._

_I pulled what was left of my Power just a small bit, I used my power, and my heart stopped._

Why did that have to be the memory I contributed?

_I've always been pretty alone. No one wants to deal with the scary girl, who hurts people and forgets. But I guess it was worse this time. I really liked that guy, he was the only one who would ever talk to me, but now he won't even look at me._

_His name was Kuon. He was such a sweet person, and he was in my class, 1-C. I wonder, what did I do anyway? Obviously it was something rather scary. It's always rather scary._

_Did my eyes glow? Kaiori Knight tells me I look really strong when that happens. She's the one who told me about how my eyes glowed when I did something scary._

_I think there may be something really bad stuck in my skin with me. It's kind of scary, but I know that it's the only thing that makes sense. I'm always hurting people. But I can heal too. But the people I hurt are too scared of me to let me heal them. I understand. I really do._

"_Kuon? Please talk to me? I'm all alone without you," I told him when I caught him on the way to Gym. He looked at me with a slightly scared expression then rushed past me. I stared after him for awhile, but then I had to follow him. I would have gotten into trouble if I didn't get there on time. Well most likely I wouldn't, my dad is a very important person after all._

_I hate it._

That was Hotaru. Poor girl, what did she have to go through before she met the scouts. And for that matter after she met them as well.

We flicked through everyone's memories. Every single memory from every single one of us. It flicked through, not playing out like a movie. A sad memory from Lan would flick to a happy one from Mamoru, would flick to and angry one from Setsuna. They flicked back and forth, on and on; and on.

Finally we had seen everything. We would forget most of it when the Complete Melding was over, but some would stay with us. The most important memories. Like mine, and Lela's deaths; Megan's nightmare. Those things are so deeply ingrained in our minds, and our personalities, and the way we act around others, that they will stay with everyone of us for the rest of our lives.

"Thank you," It was Megan standing in front of us, completely whole. Her hair was a but long, and dark. She looked exhausted, and I think she must have fought for the ability to control over Lela. But Megan's just too cute and sweet a person.

But something was different about her. Not just the hair, or the darker eyes. But it was something completely separate, and yet obviously her. I think this is what you call a 'noble bearing'. I haven't seen it since Lela's time. No one else on that World has ever been able to hold themselves in quite the right way. The strait back, the raised chin, the soft look. I'm not sure if any of this really describes the change correctly. Megan always sat and stood with her back strait, she was very proud of that. Most especially when she was singing. Her head high? Well she's done that most of the time; Mostly when she's trying to look like she doesn't care about what's going on.

But this wasn't like that.

"I think I should tell you that I've hidden myself in the place I dread most. Well maybe not most. The place of my nightmares. I wonder if you could find it, that place," Megan said with her head cocked a little to the side. Now the spell was broken. That stupid little quirk of hers, at least it helped me to get a grip on myself.

"The place of your nightmares? Do you mean the Place of Mirrors? But that place is forbidden,' I said with a slight objection.

"Livi-chin. I've destroyed a planet, do you think I haven't already upset the Balance?"

"I guess you're right," I said softly looking down at the sand.

"Deconstruct the spell, and go home. My mind had only one place now. And so now you can sense my physical form,"

"Goodbye," I said softly starting to pull all the Power back to their respective people.

"Bis Spater," She said in German. That girl is so irritating, couldn't she have just said she would come back? I know she can. Now I'll have to run a new Finding Spell. Baka Bunny.


	8. Chapter 8

Act III, Chapter I

The Place of Mirrors

"So, how are we going to get to her?" Lauren asked after I finished deconstructing the spell.

"I'll have to rest for awhile. But then I'll cast a Finding Spell for the entrance to the Hall of Doors. Now I need to get some sleep or I'll be of no help to anyone for a very long time," I said turned off towards my bedroom. I also had a guest room, and a bathroom which joined the two rooms. I could hear them all filing out the door as I changed into my pajamas. Because I had the loan of their Powers I was able to keep enough energy to actually get into them. I tucked myself in and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

"Are you rested enough yet?" Lauren asked eagerly a few days later.

"I believe I am. I think I should be able to perform the Finding Spell with only my own Power. Because I'll most likely need everyone's help to open the Door when I Find it," I told her brushing a stray hair back over my shoulder.

"Oh, will I be able to help?" Lauren looked so pitiful.

"I don't know if you can help open the Door, but you will be a great aid in dealing with Megan. Just remember that by the three parts of her soul colliding, she will be very powerful, even if I've managed to stabilize her mentally, she is still Megan," I told her with a very serious voice. By the look on her face I think she understood perfectly what I was saying.

"Of course," She replied as we began the walk to the café. We were meeting everyone for some tea, and I was going to tell everyone that I was rested enough, and we could go get her soon.

"You'll do anything for her wouldn't you?" I asked a few minutes later, after a rather uncomfortable silence.

"Of course," She said looking off. She fell silent again. Then suddenly, "She wrote a poem for me once. Did she ever tell you?" She looked over at me.

"No, she didn't," I replied feeling a little uncomfortable.

"When Sean told me she was missing I pulled it down off my wall I have my own apartment in Florida. I read that poem so many times that I can quote it now. You know what she said? She said 'If only I could be as strong as you. If only I could be as pretty as you. If only I could act like you. Then maybe you'd like me. Then maybe you'd talk to me. This is where you're supposed to say, "I love you, Just the way you are." But I know those words aren't coming, but I know. You think I'm stupid. You think I'm a freak. But I love you all the same. Through all the things, you've done to me, I love you all the same.' Did she really think I felt like that about her?" I could see tears glittering on the edges of her eyes, trying to fall down her cheeks.

"No, I don't think she did. Corey said that she was always saying that you hated her, and saying she hated you in turn. But Usagi said that she had nightmares about you saying that you wouldn't ever come to visit, that you were abandoning her. If nothing else she loved you, and thought you didn't love her back," I told her staring at the ground as we turned the corner next to the café

"I have to wonder what she's thinking. I once bought her a picture of two zebras, because her laugh sounds like a zebra, and she put it up on her wall that day. The pillow I gave her for Christmas the year before last was green, because at the time her room was full of frogs, and green. But when we moved to Georgia and she painted her walls blue, and bought new sheets and stuff, she still used it on her bed, even though she had a bunch of other pillows, that were bigger and better stuffed," She said as we started up the stairs.

"We'll find her," I said simply as the doors opened up in front of us.

"So, what are you doing again?" Hannah asked nervously as I pulled her hand closer to me.

"I'm using a drop of blood from each person who is helping to contribute power," I explained, again. This must have been at least the tenth time, but she insisted on asking again.

"But I really don't like blood. I have a phobia of blood, and of pain," She said as I pulled the little needle out of the candle flame.

"Yes, you have already informed me of this. I picked you to go first because I figured that you can pass out when I'm done, Lauren will of course go next, for the same reason," Everyone turned to look at Lauren curiously, she couldn't contribute Power, could she?

"I thought I was going to simply monitor," Lauren said nervously, already going pale, before I even touched Hannah with the needle.

"Yes, well I've been running through my memories, and the documents I managed to salvage from the last few moments of our world (I got them through a Door). It seems that Naria did have some Power, but of a very rare sort. It mostly shows itself through a singular attitude. It isn't useful for much but what that incarnation is good at, but the Power can be used to strengthen someone else. So we'll be borrowing some of her Power," I explained pricking Hannah's finger while she was preoccupied. I squeezed the finger until blood welled up, then flicked the drops into the bowl I had waiting. It wasn't much, but with what the others would contribute an my blood (which would be a lot more than the others), there should be enough to draw the one emblem this simpler Finding Spell required.

As soon as I released Hannah she staggered to my couch, and sat down heavily. I pulled Lauren towards me and pricked hr finger with a second needle, while the first was sitting in bleach I flicked the blood into the bowl less than a second before Lauren slumped in my grip. I handed her off to Lan who set her carefully on the couch.

I did the same for each of the other girls (all ten planetary scouts and Corey) and the two men. All together the few drops from each amounted to cover the bottom of the bowl, but that wasn't enough. I set the last needle in the bleach and pulled the small sharp dagger from next to the candle. I pulled it from its sheath, I had gotten this dagger in my last life from Joan a few days before her mother (who was queen at the time) died. It was later that day that I killed myself.

This knife had once belonged to Rose I, and it had been passed through generations until it reached Joan's hands. If she had kept it, she could have opened that Gateway. The Gateway was on top of the Arc, the mountain where Joan grew up, except for the few years when she was very young, when she wandered the capitol without anyone being the wiser. Joan could walk and talk at a very young age, she was less than a year when she could do both. She also grew very quickly when she was young, she looked like she was five when she was still not quite two. People assumed she was as old as she looked, because no one had any idea that Rose III had a child. It wasn't until shortly before Joan became queen that it became public knowledge. But Joan figured it out before she was made a knight at age eighteen

The Gateway was rumored to be the first Door ever created, it's also said that it leads to a different universe, which is interconnected by Doors, just like ours. But I wonder why the Gateway would have been in Narderat, rather than in Manderat, which was the first World created.

I sliced through the palm of my hand and dripped the streaming blood into the bowl. I was slightly hypnotized by the sight of the thick dripping liquid pouring from my hand. Each drop falling caused a slash in the bowl, the dark, almost black liquid trying to move away from every drop, yet forced to return because of the golden sides of the bowl.

But now that I think of it the bowl is a bit like a chalice. It has raised silver lines moving across it in both straight and curved lines. I watched these lines as my blood trickled in.

Suddenly someone grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. I looked in shock at the concerned faces. The one who had turned me was Corey, who was now busily binding my hand with some gauze, which she must have found in my bathroom.

"Why did you stop me?" I asked glaring at Corey's lowered head.

"Because the bowl is full, or hadn't noticed?" Corey replied tensely. I turned to look, and saw that she was right. I had poured more blood in that I had intended. I looked back at Corey and saw that she was trembling. I pushed her away and finished pulling the roll of gauze around my hand I then walked off to my bathroom, and pulled an old sheet out of the linen closet. I ripped it up and wrapped it around my hand several times, then tied it off.

"I'm sorry for concerning you all. But I definitely have enough to draw the emblem now," I said as I came back into the room. Everyone stared at me with expressions ranging from concern, to anger, to disgust. I suppose you can figure out who had what expression on?

After drawing the emblem in chalk it was then drawn in blood, then salt, then water. It looked a bit gruesome when I was finished, but it would do What I hadn't told the others was by using the blood of the people closest to her through several lives, I would be able to find her more easily. Otherwise I could have just done it in chalk, salt, and water if I wanted better results I could have just used my blood, to link the spell to me. But by using all of our blood I was not only linking the spell to me, but also to the others, and as such they would know the results of the spell as soon as I did.

"To the place where Lela rests, lead me blood, of mine and others. Salt of oceans long past, lead me to the place where the soul almost forgotten rests. Water of life lead me to the one who seeks your calm, but is caught in upheavals all her own," I called a simple incantation. It would show me what I needed.

Suddenly in front of me there was a Door. But it looked like a mirror, and reflected my face back at me. But the place around the Door was shockingly familiar. I wonder if there us anyone around me who would not have known the place. I stopped thinking about it and turned my attention to the shockingly pure white Details.

They told me that it would take the love for one imprisoned in the Place of Mirrors, and a lot of Power to enter that place. No wonder, the Place of Mirrors was not supposed to be accessed by Incarnations, or even Reincarnations. But I sort of wondered how someone could be imprisoned in the Place of Mirrors, since the only way to get in was to have someone you care for greatly to be imprisoned there. Very strange.

I cut off the spell and turned to look at the others. They were all watching me.

"It looked like we're going to need plane tickets," I announced to the group.

"Why?" Of course it was Usagi, who else would know so little of the world that they wouldn't have recognized the place where the Door rested.

"Because, we'll need to go to the White House to open the Door,"


	9. Chapter 9

Act III, Chapter II

Plans and Flights

"What are we going to do about families though?" Corey asked as we sat in Art, she sat right next to me, and we both had our easels up, and very close to each other. So no one could see we were talking. We just had to stay quiet.

"I was thinking we could use Luna-P to make them all forget about us while we're gone. And we just restore their memories when we get back. And I'm thinking we'll have to do the same for teachers, and classmates. So Maybe I should just use a spell to make everyone forget us while we're gone. We may be gone for awhile. In act because Megan's been gone so long I think we should have used something on people about her too. But now since we're doing something anyway, we might as well hit that family too. Make them forget both sisters," I explained as I started drawing the plastic skull at the bottom of a pile of plastic coins. Which was next to a plaster skeleton. I suppose there were a lot of details we would be forced to draw. At least it wasn't a contour drawing, then any noise at all would get us a glare from the teacher.

"I guess that would work. Since we're going to a different World should we get our families? Mine, yours, and Hannah's?" Corey asked. I looked over at her; she was still working on the plaster skeleton.

"I think that would be best," I replied darkening the crevasse of the left eye socket.

"We should do it this afternoon then," Corey said glancing up at the model in front of us. I heard her swear, I looked over and saw that one of the other students had nudged the table causing a coin to fall into the rib cage of the skeleton. I went back drew it into mine.

I was drawing emblems again. But this time I had to include the names of the souls of the people we would be messing with their memories, which was harder than it sounds. Just because I go by Michelle, and Livi, and Lena does not mean that any of them are my soul's name. In fact my soul's name is ironically Onekabak, which if you switch the letters around said idiot cat in Japanese. Yes, ever so ironic. I'm starting to think that I must have known Marie in other lives, why else would she call me a stupid cat?

Just as I was finishing drawing the emblem for Torsh (Megan's younger brother), someone banged on my door. I ignored it and began on the emblem for Dem (Hannah's mother. I had finished with Megan's family, I was being orderly). But whoever it was continued knocking. I continued to ignore them as I worked through Hannah's father, and sister's emblems. When I finished with them I was done. I had completed all the people in both TA and Juuban, Corey's family, my family, and Megan's before I began on Hannah's. I stood up to another chorus of knocks and answered the door. It was Lauren.

"Yes? I was about to draw the central emblems, that tell them the names and people they're supposed to forget, if left the way it is it will erase their memories of everything they have ever done, and everything they have lived through," I said irritably.

"I'm sorry, I was just trying to tell you that I've gotten plane tickets for all of us to go to DC, I figured you'd want to know," Lauren told me looking a little guilty. But only a little.

"Thank you, I'll finish the spell now, I suggest not trying to contact anyone you know until we get back," I told her. She turned away and I closed the door to finish the spell.

"We have everything right?" I asked everyone as Lauren drove us through Tokyo to the airport. I'm surprised she was allowed to get a big van like this. It fit all of us, but barely. We each had a seat, but there was no extra space. Everyone had brought two bags, even though we were each allowed two check-in bags, one carry-on, and a personal bag. I'm sure that if we had Megan with us she would have brought two check-ins, a carry-on, a personal bag, and a few extra bags which she would pass off as someone else's. That was the kind of thing that Megan would do. But the reason we were going was because we didn't have her, so I guess there's no point in speculating.

"Yes, this is the third time you've asked," Rei said sounding highly annoyed. I looked at her for a few minutes, until she averted her eyes. Yes, that was how I do things. I continued to stare at her for a minute before I averted my eyes.

"Well, this is a very long plane ride. We have to fly to Beijing, where we have a layover, then we go to Frankfurt, then we have a long flight to Atlanta. Then we fly into Dullas and from there we rent several cars, and drive to the hotel, where we have nine rooms. We will be in the hotel for some time while we all recover to our full strength, then we will drive to the White House, where we will join a tour. Then we have to sneak away from the group, and I will cast a spell so that anyone who sees us will forget they saw us before they can comprehend what they see. Then we will sneak to the Door and then we will have to transform. At that point the spell will fall apart, because we are no longer exactly what is specified in the spell," I explained watching peoples faces, and also the backs of their heads.

"This sounds a lot like National Treasure, or maybe the second one. Did you notice that?" Lauren said sounding curious from the driver's seat.

"Yes, the irony was not lost on me," I said smiling. I was a bit surprised when she said it, but now that I think about it I think Megan once told me that her older sister watched National Treasure and Pirates of the Caribbean over and over again.

"We're here," Lauren announced pulling into a parking lot. This one had a special area for rental cars, which was where we would be leaving the van. Lauren deftly pulled into the rather small parking space with the ease of someone with a lot of practice. As soon as the car stopped we all started gathering up our things.

We climbed out and waited while Lauren went and returned the keys to the van. After that was started the climb through layers of airport. First we had to sign in, then we had to go and find something to eat, then was bag checks, and everything. All in all it was only the very long beginning of an even longer two days or so. But despite having to go through customs, and Usagi's horror at finding out she couldn't bring such a heavy bag as a carry on (she had specially stolen several manga from Rei, along with the ones she bought on her own. Not to mention all the food she had stuffed in their). And of course all the hassle of redistributing things through the bags. The good thing was that because we had most of our stuff in suitcases (only enough for a roughly two hour flight was left in our carry-ons, we each had one and Michiru had also brought a rather large purse(, we all had enough room that none of Usagi's things were lost.

But eventually we managed to get on the plane. I was next to Lan, I think I got stuck with him because Usagi, Chibi-Usa and Mamoru managed to snag the three seats next to each other in the center of the plane. Minako and Ami were behind us, and Hannah and Corey were behind them. To my right was Chibi-Usa, Mamoru, and Usagi, behind then was Setsuna, Hotaru, and Lauren. To their right was Haruka and Michiru, and in front of them was Makoto and Rei. I'm sure about where everyone is sitting, but I guess that they most likely won't kill each other like this.

But nevertheless, it was going to be a very long flight. Before the speaker over the intercom had even started speaking I was reclining my seat, and covering myself with a blanket. I think I'll sleep through this one.

I did manage to sleep through most of it. I woke up at some point, and we were only ten minutes or so from descent, so I pulled out some gum and just lasted through it. The layover in Beijing wasn't bad, except I couldn't understand anything that people were saying. But it doesn't matter much anyway. We had to get our bags, then we had to check them in again, then we had to go through customs again. So I guess it wasn't really anything different, just everything was in a different language.

This flight was longer (close to seven hours), so we made sure we had plenty to keep Chibi-Usa and Usagi occupied (none of us wanted to listen to them, and we all pitied Mamoru, who would be sitting with them again). On this flight them fed us. I got the chicken and potatoes, and I swear that chicken was drier than the Sahara. Not to mention the 'potatoes' at this point I'm pretty sure they never were potatoes. I think I might have been better off eating Usagi's doughnuts.

The stop at Frankfurt was the same procedure, and the food on the nine hour flight to Dullas was just as bad. But at least they had something that vaguely resembled a hot dog. I think I drank too much coke on both flights though. Definitely a downside of free drinks, is that you fill your system, and them you have to use that bathroom, on the plane. Has anyone ever described a plane bathroom to you? Well I will It's about the size of a port-a-potty to start with, then you add in the fact that there is a full sized sink, and full sized toilette taking up most of the space, and the smell of disinfectant. All in all it's a horrible ordeal. I'll have to ask Megan how she got through so many trans-Atlantic flights (I think she's been on five, or maybe it was more).

I could have kissed the ground when we landed, but I restrained myself (barely). We were in the states, and with any luck I won't have to go through that again. We can send the native Japanese back to Japan, and the rest of us can just stay here, yeah that sounds good. We had to of course pick up our things, go through a different type of customs, get the rental cars and pile ourselves into them (we had four). Then there was the car ride, which of course included a traffic jam and getting lost multiple times. But we got there, got checked in and got into our rooms. I have to admit I was overly ecstatic to get there.

As soon as I got into the room I was sharing with Corey I flopped down on the bed next to the window (which overlooked a parking lot) and fell asleep. Of course my dreams weren't restful.

I can't really remember what they were about but they woke me in a cold sweat. The last one (which I woke from just before dawn) woke me screaming. At that point Corey sat up glared at me said 'don't go back to sleep or I'll never get any'. Then she turned towards the wall and went back to sleep.

So I got up and dressed. I was happy to get into normal American clothes again. I dressed in a black shirt, and dark blue jeans, then I used mascara and eyeliner and some pink tinted lip gloss. I pulled my old rather beat up army bag, and my leather jacket. The sketch book came out as well of course. I pulled on the jacket, put my pencils in the front part of the purse, sling it over both shoulders, and grabbed the sketch pad. I almost forgot my room key, but I grabbed that and stuck it in my back pocket. Then I went down to the front lobby.

I sat in one of the huge squishy chairs, and started drawing a sketch of Serra. I figured that because my mind was on her I should draw her in all the forms I knew. So that would mean her hanyou, Serra, both Roses, Lela, and Megan. I don't know how I'm going to draw them all together, only that I'm going to.

I must have sat there for hours working, because all of the sudden Chibi-Usa was looking over my shoulder. I wonder how someone gets such naturally pink hair?

"What are you doing?" She asked when I looked up.

"I'm drawing,"

"Well obviously. What are you drawing?" Chibi-Usa asked putting stress on the 'What'.

"A friend of mine. She's been a friend of mine for a very long time," I said as I turned back to my sketch. I was in the middle of drawing the distinctive split sleeves that Rose II was never without. I had finished Serra, the hanyou, and Megan. Now I was doing the ones I wasn't as sure on.

"Mami," Usagi said causing me to jump. I hadn't noticed she was there! How is such a noisy girl so quiet?

"Yes," I said finishing the arch of the end of her sleeve. Rose was sitting on a throne while Serra leaned up against it, the hanyou sat on the floor, and Megan leaned down with her elbows resting on the armrest. I think Lela and Rose I will stand off to either side.


	10. Chapter 10

Act II, Chapter III

What is that Crazy Princess Doing this Time?

"So when are we going to go National Treasure and sneak into the White House anyway?" Corey asked impatiently a few days later. We ended up having to give me the room to myself, because I kept waking up screaming.

"Tomorrow, could you be quieter perhaps? I don't know who might hear. And if people look into it too hard they may end up accusing us of treason I don't feel like getting my head chopped off, you?" I said casually as I turned to go through my bag and find the laptop, which was really Megan's, but we borrowed for this trip. I have to admit it's a very nice computer. But some of the sketches on it were too dark to be hers, and their feelings and emotions were too much like those of the dreams that woke me screaming.

"You know we don't chop people's heads off these days right?" Hannah said sounding as if she was about to laugh.

"Yes, it was more of a metaphorical phrase than anything else," I told them powering up the high-tech computer on my lap.

"That or perhaps you are beginning to have the same trouble I do," Malia said calmly stretching slightly. I wonder how she can keep such a low skirt from falling off.

"And what problem is that?" I asked with a snap to my voice.

"Forgetting the present and being absorbed by the past," I wonder how that top stays on as well. Or how she stays so skinny, she wasn't anorexic-skinny, but she was still very thin. I was thinner than I used to be, but I still wasn't as sticklike as she is.

"Of course not, I resolved that problem before I killed myself," I said absently.

"What does that mean?" The snap had switched voices and was now inhabiting Malia's.

"It means I understood what a strong personality and power could do, and I did not want to deal with it again. I was barely able to keep 'Michelle' from being covered by 'Lena'. So I limited the power I could wield when I was reincarnated, but I can't seem to remember how I did it…" My voice trailed off as ornate emblems, and symbols flashed before my eyes as Krista's green eyes watched emotionlessly. Then I was caught in a memory.

_The stupid quill dried up again in the middle of a word. I dipped it and continued my penmanship obviously flawed there. But I realized that I didn't have anything more to say. This letter was to Princess Joan, who would ascend the throne soon. I would tell her to read it on the day of her coronation, that would work. I would be dead by then._

_I signed it with all my names and all the titles I had been given over the years. Then the letter was placed in an envelope and sealed with a drip of blue wax. The seal I pressed in was of a shattered heart, the pieces beginning to fall. I picked that symbol not to stand for me, but rather to stand for my best friend, and what she had done to herself._

_Krista entered the room as I wrote the Princess's name on the opposite side in curling letters. Krista was of course the subject of the letter, I asked that Joan would kill her, after I was gone. It was not that I disliked the younger woman, but only that she was not a safe person to have around if you didn't have someone to keep her in hand._

_Krista was the third piece of Lela's soul, the piece that held all the capacity for the emotions that had caused Lela to destroy my world. Anger, Jealousy, grief, and pain. Of course the other two pieces have had their share of all of those, but they had never held sway over her long, because they had been placed in this third piece, this piece which held very little Power. _

_Krista had no capacity for love, happiness, or joy. She had felt these, just as the others had felt their opposites, but as with the others it was fleeting. Krista had no optimism, just as the other two had no pessimism. One of the optimistic pieces had most of the Power, but fewer emotions, The other was more passionate, but had less Power to act on her passions._

_Krista was unfortunately the closest thing the evil that could reside in the world and still be human. That was why Joan had to kill her._

"How did you know that?" I swear all that sharpness in her voice would most likely cut iron; as if it was butter.

"Because this is my third life, while it's only your second. I have had more experience with the Worlds than you have," I said calmly touching the icon of a frog which stood for Megan's file.

I got a glare, which I pretended not to notice. While I might have to listen to Malia when she orders me she will listen to me when it comes down to Megan's life. And the argument over which of us is actually older did come down to Megan's life. I lived right at the beginning of the Worlds, when all the Worlds were connected, and knowledge flowed freely among people. None of these others can compete, although the Sailor Scouts could come close with their Silver Millennium.

I had to admit that this system had always been a backwater type of place, with wars and killing in great abundance. I was rather surprised to find out that there was an age when it was the exact opposite. Of course that is why they fell from that place of civilization. Perhaps because this area is well known for it's instability they should have kept their armies in working shape.

"What are you doing?" Usagi asked in Japanese. Of course it was Japanese of course, her English was almost as bad as Hannah's Japanese. I have to wonder why Hannah went to study in Japan when her Japanese was that bad.

"I'm looking through her sketches to see if-" I cut off as the computer screen turned silver. It flashed blindingly, then began scrolling the flowing lines of Kashar across the screen. Kashar was the language of a planet known for its oceans and smooth flowing lines of architecture. The language looked a lot like ocean waves weaving back and forth. Lela had always loved the language because it was so beautiful. Almost as beautiful as Narderisch, the language of Narderat, which was a place famed for its beauty.

"What is that?" Usagi asked her voice wavering. Corey glanced over and stared in shock. At the gasp from Malia the rest of the girls crowded in behind me to read. I felt like throwing up. It was just like Lela to send me a stupid message I could have barely read when I was living the life in which it was a well used language. Now it was a mostly dead language, and it was hundreds of years of life in the past for me. Even farther back for Lela herself (who has lived so many lives I have to wonder why she would love a guy that much that she would have all three parts of her soul chasing after him trying to find him for one reason or another).

"It's called Kashar. Stupid Rabbit," I muttered the last under my breath.

"Hey, That was mean. You didn't have to call me stupid you know," Usagi said sounding highly offended.

"Not you! I call Megan 'Baka Bunny' a lot, that's her nickname. Just like mine (according to Marie and Megan) is 'Baka Kitty'," I said scanning the blue and green characters.

How could Lela have gotten a message out of the Place of Mirrors? That was not actually possible, well not as far as I knew at least.

"Well what does it say?" Malia asked impatiently.

"Something about meddling in Time. I think she's asking us to change some event in history. Or maybe she's telling us that's what she's going to do. The use of this tone of green definitely suggests a future tense of this, but I can't tell if she's the subject, or if we are. Is she asking us to do something or warning us of something she's doing? I just can't tell. Lela was always the one who loved languages, and living as many lives as she has on as many Worlds in as many Times as she has just makes it easier for her to pick up a new language. But Kashar is one of the hardest to learn, because it uses color, size, and number of angles to show tense, emotion, and urgency. Whereas they use adjectives in any other language to show that. The worst is that Lela learned this one right along with Narderisch, the two hardest languages in existence to learn as a second language. And both of those were learned with Common, which is almost exactly like English, and all of these were learned in the cradle (which is really the only way to really know any of those languages) So I just don't know for sure," I said shaking my head as I read through a second time. It was as much like staring at an abstract painting and trying to find the meaning and emotion behind it as it was reading. This is why I hate Kashar, and never made much of an effort to learn it.

"I can't allow us to meddle in Time," Setsuna suddenly said from behind making us all jump collectively, "What she has already done in going to the Place of Mirrors has changed things enough that any further meddling could undo what we have been working for all these years."

"Well she said she might be warning us of what she was doing," Hotaru pointed out calmly.

"Yes, well that's not likely. This is Megan we're dealing with," Lauren said sounding a little exasperated with her younger sister.

"Yeah, I have to agree with Lauren," Corey said with a slight smile. Hannah had a similarly exasperated, yet loving look on her face as Lauren and Corey both. I think my face was doing something similar. I anyone knows Megan as long as we have, they'd get the same look going. Megan was forgetful, despite the fact that she can hear a word used once in context, and use it correctly ever after that. And the fact that she can remember the strangest facts about History, and writing style. The kinds of things I prefer to just ignore.

"Well that is true. But now that she has better influence in her head…" I trailed off looking back at the faces of the other girls. Hannah and Corey both looked as if they were going to start laughing any second.

"What good influence? Do you mean one of the Roses? They were both a little strange. Or do you mean Lela? Didn't you say it yourself that she was a lot like Megan in personality, just a little darker when she went crazy?" Corey was bringing up some very important points I had to admit. I hated to admit it though.

"Neither of the Roses was any better than Megan herself. The first had her moments of insanity, but after her soul combined the two pieces weren't in sync very well. So she had moments when it seemed like she was two different people. She didn't have Michelle's expertise then. The second Rose was better, but she had so much power, and she couldn't control any of it. Besides she had a habit of making a mess seconds after the maids came in to clean. Like the time when she and Elle ran away. That mess took months to get back into order, especially since she broke that window, which took up the entire wall of her rather immense bedroom. And there was that time when she decided to make weapons for both Elle and herself. I'm sure that drove the silver smith insane, since she used so much silver to make all those magical bells. And there was the fact that Elle's knife was made completely out of silver. Then there was the time when she-" I felt the need to cut her off. Rose II was well known for the fact that she wore a bracelet all made of silver, which had small bells that hypnotized anyone who heard them. She wore that bracelet everyday from the day she ran away along with her younger sister to the day she died of a wasting disease. The bracelet disappeared the next day, and no one is sure where it went. But they decided not to bury it with her, because it was what she was well known for, and they thought it would be better if her legacy lived on.

"I think we can all imagine after knowing Megan," I said turning the laptop off. I wasn't going to be able to get anything else from it.

"I kind of wish I knew where she was," Chibi-Usa said solemnly looking at the closed laptop, which Megan had painted with roses and shining bells. Not to mention a tiara that was overly ornate. They were all symbols of Rose II. But the roses themselves were as much symbols of Rose I as they are of the second one. When we first went to get the laptop I had notice the beginnings of other brushstrokes, like she was going to add something else into that mostly blank area near the top underneath a border of inter-weaving roses in a multitude of colors. I think she was going to put in something that was uniquely Megan, without connections to either of the Roses. Perhaps it would have been a symbol of Sailor Rose.

"We all do," I said ending the conversation.


	11. Chapter 11

Act IV, Chapter I

The Reflection of the Past

"Let's go," I whispered into Malia's ear, with barely a breath behind it. Malia of course heard it because of one of the charms in her hair. It was shaped like the profile of a woman's head, her ear elongated. I don't know who it was supposed to be, but they looked similar to the People of a group of Worlds called the Ratherad. They had incredible hearing, and were famous for their woodcraft.

Malia nudged Luna's shoulder slightly and nodded very slightly, so that you would only know it was a nod if you were watching for it. Luna in turn sent out a telepathic message to all the scouts, Hannah, Corey, Artemis, Luna, Lauren, Lan, and Mamoru. We all fell back slowly, until we could just see the tour group turning a corner ahead of us.

I set off towards a room I had seen a few minutes ago, as I pulled a piece of cloth out of my bag. It was a very large bag, which some of the crazier people in the world would have referred to as a purse. I however will continue to call it simply a bag.

I had drawn the emblems needed to freeze time. Or that would be how it would seem to those who can't understand the way the Power works. Those who do would understand that there is no way to actually freeze time, because the amount of Power needed to attempt to accomplish such a task would need at least ten people of Lela's rank of Power. That would mean close to seventy people with Malia's rank of Power. And over a hundred with my rank of Power. Now understand that I am among the fifty or so most Powerful Souls in existence. And Souls are neither created or destroyed in the course of time. So that would in the end explain why it was impossible to do so, it would take just about every soul in existence to freeze time, and in that case then what is the real point of freezing time?

No, what I am doing is much simpler. I am simply speeding the movements of our group to the point where the rest of the world seemed frozen. This would of course be unsustainable, due to the fact that a human body is not meant to function at those speeds. So it's really only sustainable for a minute and a half, real time. But you could live your entire life almost in that minute and a half. So it's quite lucky that I figured out how to do this. Even better I never told anyone. So there are only legends of the girl who could move at speeds far beyond truth. I'm sure you've heard some version of that legend.

Of maybe you've heard of the fairy mounds, where someone might spend a night and when you come out find that years have passed, and every person you knew, down to the youngest babe, has already died and left behind only their grandchildren, or great-grandchildren. Those were an earlier idea of mine. I was actually trying to make it so that you could transport to a different world, one of your own making. But the Mother thwarted me, and caused me to instead speed time considerably. I didn't even know I had done this until my second life, where I discovered these legends and came across one myself. Then I realized what I had done and perfected it to the point that I could focus it onto one or more Souls.

The side effect was that the Souls involved tend to be more open to the memories of their past and future lives ever after that. It was after I tried this on a young man called 'Merlin' that I realized the side effects. I believe he ended up becoming the Merlin of Arthurian Legend, the one that remembered things in reverse.

I laid the fabric on the light colored wooden floors. And flattened it so that it was perfectly straight, without a single wrinkle. As soon as it was perfectly flat the symbols began glowing I had gone ahead and drawn in the names of all the souls who would go with me, but I hadn't told them what I was actually doing. I had kept it secret long enough that I couldn't think of revealing my secret after all this time. They thought I was going to freeze time, even Malia. If that tell you anything about how much better education was in my first life than it was in my second.

After what seemed hours (but to tell the truth was smaller than the smallest conceivable fraction of a second), the glowing stopped and I casually bundled the cloth back up and placed it gently in my bag. Then I started out, all this without a word.

Now it might not seem impressive to you what I've managed to accomplish now that you've seen it in action. But it really is something to be proud of. The Spell wouldn't have worked if the Souls involved had been too spread out, that was why I gathered them all into a room together.

"So was that it?" Corey asked sounding slightly disgusted. I paused and looked out the window next to me. Corey stopped as well and looked out to see a bird in the middle of the sky, not moving at all. She looked at me, and I started out again.

We wove through halls, opening doors and closing them back just as we found them. Finally we opened the door into the Oval Office. I pulled a different cloth out of my bag and laid this on the floor similarly. But this time I also removed salt, water, sand, and candles and started laying them out in the correct formations. I finally motioned them into the central emblem. This wasn't a Finding Spell, although it functioned similarly. This was called a Seeing Spell, which allowed us to see the Door and its Details.

As the mirrored Door appeared in front of me I began pulling the threads of Power from the people around me. But found the Power of an extra Soul reaching out a thread to help me. I couldn't understand, because it was such purely bright white, and it's feel was warm, and comforting. And it was much stronger I am. But since it obviously wanted me to use its Power I pulled it's thread as well.

As soon as I mentally grasped the thread I felt something shift in reality. I looked at my companions and found they were all in different outfits. Hannah, Corey, Lauren, and Lan all wore the normal fashions for nobility in the Kingdoms several hundred years ago. The Scouts and Mamoru were dressed in what I must assume was the height of fashion in the Silver Millennium. Malia wore her formal dress (which was really less dress than you would expect), it was much more complex than her normal Soft Dress she wore on a daily occasion, and it was several hundred years outdated in comparison to the two princesses, the king, and the young noble woman who refused to admit she was nobility. The three cats were dressed in very unusual clothes as well. Luna's was yellow and rather sheer, while Artemis's was all white, and had a hole around his belly button. Diana's dress was poofy and had several layers to it. I think hers was the cutest.

I looked down at myself to find that I was in different clothes from everyone else as well. If I said that their clothes were all rather normal for the ages in which they lived their last lives, mine was not. I was dressed as was the height of fashion in my first life, on Manderat. I looked like I often used to when Lela would dress me up in rather girly clothes and drag me to some party or another. My dress was long and loose, colored in black, with ornamentations. My necklace was only a black ribbon held very close to my neck with a silver cat hanging from it. I wore bracelets on each wrist, one was the same as the necklace, close hanging black ribbon with a hanging silver cat. The other was a wide silver cuff, with a cat, lacquered in black. Around my waist was a belt make of links of alternating silver cats and black lacquered cats. Hanging from the tail of each cat was a silver bell which made me think of Rose II's famous bow, with it's silver bells.

I turned my mind from the clothes, and funneled the multicolored Power into the Door. The Door shone brighter than the sun, and yet didn't quite blind me, it just filled the room with light, so that everything was thrown into sharp relief, and looked flat, as if there was no source of the light. The light grew, and grew until I couldn't see anything, not even myself. Then I felt the world shift. Or rather it was sort of like we were being drawn into the Door.

"It's good to see you all again," Megan said her voice coming from everywhere. I looked around and saw millions of mirrors. Every single one reflected a different version of our group. Except one, which showed Megan walking towards us in a dark blue dress, which has frill, laces, and bows in great abundance. But somehow it was the tiara resting on her head that really drew my eye. It was the Onyx tiara that Lela made.

"You too Megan," I replied standing. Somehow I was on the floor, as if I had fallen.

"Livi-chan! I like the dress. It really suits the Baka-Neko," Megan said jokingly.

"Of course you'd call me that," I muttered softly. I turned to look at my companions to find that they were all clutching their heads.

"You know, that was probably the worst spell for you to have cast before coming here. Because you know that the Speeding Spell ends up putting minds closer to their past lives, or in my case it would have brought the three fragments closer together. But here, here you will find a total recall of everything you ever knew, or did. It is usually only short lasting. But because of your spell I fear that the effects are stronger, and more permanent. I gained complete recall with your work to put things back together, Nadilire's Power, and the Rings. So it only affected me mildly. And your spells of limiting did the same for you. But the others have lost some part of at least one of their lives if not more, and so the Mirrors will show them the truth of themselves. We should sit, this may take awhile," Megan said. At the last of her words a pair of chairs appeared near them. I sat in the rather austere black chair, while Megan lounged into the thickly cushioned light blue one.

The two of us sat in silence for a long time. Or maybe it wasn't a long time. I can't understand how time passes in this place. But finally Megan stood and her seat disappeared.

"I should finish what I was doing when you got here," She then touched one mirror, and it showed a long read out of maps, and words in hundreds of different languages.

"What are you doing?" I asked looking at the complex screen in front of her.

"Oh, I thought I told you what I was doing," Megan said turning back towards me with a frown.

"Well I got a message from you, which was in Kashar! I never could speak it, and you know it," I said

"Oh, well I remembered that I taught you some, and that you took it as your elective language. So I figured you would be able to understand something at least," Megan said without turning.

Someone groaned behind me, I looked and saw that Usagi was now snoring on the floor, as was Chibi-Usa. But the rest of the Sailor Scouts, along with Hannah, Mamoru, Lan, Corey, and Lauren were sitting up. Malia was the one who groaned however. She was leaning against a mirror her reflection looking overly familiar to me. This reflection I knew from this life, and it was a reflection I had never thought to see of Malia.

For this woman in the mirror who leaned against Malia, separated only by the encumbering glass had slightly poofy dark brown hair, and dark brown eyes, barely seen through the half closed lashes. She wore a long emerald colored dress, with gauzy golden colored fabric over her breast, and wrapped around her waist. She wore a multitude of necklaces, all of them in gold and green. Her hair had been pulled back into a simple low ponytail, which was held in place by a golden clasp.

This girl was a friend of both Megan and myself. Her name was Marie, and I had thought I would not see her again after she never turned up where she said she would in Japan.


	12. Chapter 12

Act IV, Chapter II

What Happens Through the Door

"Marie?" I said in a low wondering voice.

"Yes, I figured it out when they left me alone. The did me both a great disfavor, but also a great favor when they did that," Megan said still not turning from the mirror in front of her.

"Yes, well I already yelled at them about that," I said as I casually tried to read what was on the read-out in front of my friend. What was she doing?

"Oh, that's just like you Gwamma," That was a voice from behind me. I looked and Malia had changed. She now looked like the girl in the mirror. Megan turned around quick as a flash and rushed to Marie.

"Sissy!" She said in a rather irritatingly high pitched squeal. Marie gave a similar one and hugged her back. They then turned to me with a glint in their eyes I didn't like. I was then set upon by hugs.

I wonder why it is that either on of these when she was by herself was perfectly dignified, but when put together they fell to giggling and annoying me. You really have to wonder about their sanity, I they have any between them. They're both very smart, relatively witty, and highly creative. But all that goes flying out the window when they're together. I don't think that any of the girls behind us had seen Malia act this way, and only a few had seen Megan acct as such. And I'm sure they were all equally shocked to see me join in happily into the fray. All in all there is no existing sanity between the three of us when we're together. Especially since we had been apart three years, and we had all changed so much in those years.

"So what was that all about?" Corey asked once Marie and Megan had stopped attacking me.

"Oh, it's just that Megan and I haven't seen Marie in a long time, and Marie and I haven't seen Megan in a long time, and Megan hasn't seen me or Marie in a while," I said pinning Marie's hair back up into her ponytail. I swear this girl would just leave her hair without doing anything if she could still do all her art, and write all her stories with her hair hanging in her face. Megan on the other hand was pulling the few stray hairs back into perfect order. The strange thing is that some of the stray hairs were only placed differently, but still left loose, because Megan thought that 'it was more real looking'.

"You do realize that was very repetitive right?" Haruka asked looking a little confused. If I hadn't known better I'd think Haruka was a stupid jock, but maybe it's just that the rest of us are simply superior in Power, and so the rest of us are augmented? No, because if that theory was right Megan would be normal, or at least a super genius.

"Yes, but there was a different connotation for each statement despite the fact that each has the same denotation," Megan said using two of her favorite words. Ever since she learned them in English last year she's used them at every chance she got, so she loves moments like this.

"Wha?" Usagi asked blearily coming to. I wonder why she fell asleep anyway.

"A connotation is the idea connected with the word, like the fact that skinny is a good thing, but scrawny is a bad thing. The denotation is the exact meaning of a word or phrase," Megan explained turning back to her mirror read outs.

"What are you doing?" Ami asked promptly pulling the Mercury computer out of thin air.

"I'm changing the nature of Time, Space and Past," Megan said examining the readout before rapping an anime looking image of a boy. She hit a similar picture of another boy, then one of a girl. She hit a rather suspiciously looking red button, the kind you expect to have the words 'DO NOT TOUCH' written above with huge bold letters, that you can't help but notice.

"Why?" I can't believe I heard Setsuna sound concerned about something. Perhaps 'concerned' wasn't the best word. Perhaps scared out of her wits would be a more accurate phrase.

"because I was bored," Megan said sounding highly unconcerned.

"That is not a good enough reason!" Setsuna cried sounding completely panicked, as if she thought that everything was going start disappearing.

"You don't need to be concerned. It's from this place that Souls are ordered to their next lives, and it's from this place that many of the newer Worlds were created. It's safe to do anything from here. I'm mostly just taking the threads of fate of all of us, and several other important people who I'm getting tired of waiting or and combing them and pulling them all to one place together. So of course we'll need Ivy, Joan, Rose III, Jasson, Paul, Michael…And all the others I can't think of just now," Megan said the last bit a little too fast, "Some of them their threads of fate were already entangled, and I didn't want them there. I don't want to bother those who won't be needed in this fight. But others weren't where they should have been. Take Paul, his lines are so thoroughly entangled in mine and Hannah's that I wonder who he might be now. Then there's Michael. He could rival Haruka and Makoto in sheer physical strength, and his Power could rival even Lena and Malia. Ivy we need because if she has awakened, then she is an ally we will need in the days to come, with her unique Powers Don't look at me like that Malia, it is necessary. Joan we need because Ivy will only follow her, Rose III won't come unless we can also find Jasson. But I think that will be impossible, because their era is some number of years after now. I don't think we can bring them into Now without irreparable damage to Time."

We all stared at her for a few minutes (even Usagi and Chibi-Usa who were just awakening). Then suddenly Setsuna started laughing. We all looked at her with as much shock as we had shown looking at Megan.

"I can't believe it! She actually did as she said. I can feel the Flows of Time shifting. But something's not quite as she wanted…" She trailed off both in words and laughter looking at something none of us could see Then she started laughing again, "How funny! Michael is now a girl!"

"So how did you all get along without me?" Megan asked as she opened a Door none of us could see until it opened.

"Horribly," Lan said grasping her hand. Megan looked up at him with such a look in her eye I wondered how either of them got on without the other for more than a day.

"Where's Emma? I thought she would come too," Megan said finally after a long moment of looking at Lan.

"We don't know," I said quietly from behind them. Megan didn't flinch, but Lan must have shot ten feet into the air.

"Why not?" Megan asked with a menacing tone to her voice.

"She disappeared, well she really faded away. And she hasn't come back So we assume she's somewhere in the future," I said calmly. Then I pulled the small rose pin from where it hung concealed under the fabric of my dress, nestled between my breasts, "This is all she left behind." As I offered it to Megan I noticed that the sands still didn't move within the little hour glass.

"You hold onto it. You are its keeper now. You should wear it differently though," Megan squeezed it in her hand softly them opened it again. Now it hung from a thin fragile looking silver chain. Megan offered it back to me, and I hung it around me neck. The chain made the hour glass hang just above the low neckline of my dress. It would be concealed in most of my normal clothes.

We stepped through the Door to find ourselves in my hotel room. I looked at Megan and she smiled and cocked her head at me. I looked back at her seriously.

"Hey if there was a Door here why did I not find it?" I asked her with slightly narrowed eyes as everyone else came filing through into the small room.

"It's one way, the only way in is the way you used. But there are a nearly infinite number of ways out. The Place of Doors is very mysterious, and can't be predicted by normal means. Normally there are as many ways in as there are number of ways out, but not there," Megan said as the last few people crowded into the room. She shut the Door, and it ceased to exist in this World.

"How did you get in there anyway?" I asked.

"You're forgetting already that I'm more Powerful alone than all the rest of you combined," Then looking concerned she looked up at Lan's face as if afraid he would suddenly reject her like Laurent did all those lives ago. Instead he leaned down and kissed her. I averted my eyes, it wasn't my business, only to find that everyone else was watching avidly for one reason or another.

I sighed and grasped Marie's arm. Then I opened the door out of my room and shooed everyone out. It was only at this point that I realized we were all still in our 'Princess' dresses. They all quickly scattered to their own rooms, except somehow the room order changed so that Megan and Lan had a room to themselves, and Usagi, Chibi-Usa, and Mamoru were now sharing. The three of the Outers (Hotaru, Michiru, and Haruka) were in one room, Rei and Makoto had another room, Setsuna and Marie shared another, another room was Hannah, Corey, and Lauren, I however still had a room to myself. I had to wonder why everyone allowed this.

"Let's go shopping," Megan announced the next day before grabbing Lan's arm and dragging him out of the hotel. The rest of us could only follow them. Usagi and Chibi-Usa did their usual and hung onto either of Mamoru's arms, and the rest of us walked at a normal pace while Megan clung to Lan's hand as if she thought he was going to disappear.

"Why are we going shopping?" I asked Megan after close to five hours of hopping subways, wandering shopping districts, and wandering around malls.

"Because I haven't been shopping in close to a year!" Megan said with a bright smile. But I knew that it hadn't been that hard on her. The whole year she lived in Alabama she went to the mall maybe two times. Megan may seem like your average ditzy girly-girl who loves shopping and is in possession of a wardrobe any spoiled princess would envy, but really she can go months wearing clothes which are technically too small for her and not even notice. Not to mention that she wears make-up maybe once a month, if not less often, and she expects that everyone will have to notice when she decides that she's going to wear her normal light eyeliner, light mascara, light eyeshadow, and light lip gloss. I have to wonder why she bothers at all. I mean no one can ever tell the difference. But if you don't look really closely and comment, she'll act injured all day.

"Why are we really going shopping?" Hannah asked knowing the same facts I did.

"Because I haven't had a chance to hang out with all my friends in a long time," Megan looked so pathetic we all just let it drop.

A few hours later we were in a bookstore (we had been here for the last hour and a half thanks to the insane reading combo of Megan, Lauren, Ami, Michiru, Hannah, and Corey), when suddenly Megan stopped turned around and broke out in a huge smile.

We all turned to see what she was beaming about, because this was Megan, she only ever beams about Lan, or new Books. Well unless it's manga, she loves her manga. All that was there was two boys and two girls. Usagi gasped and looked at Megan then looked back at the people then back at Megan, then back at the people, it went on like this for while.

Hannah stepped up looked straight at one of the boys (he had really bright blue eyes and downy looking light brown hair), and one of the girls (she had crystal blue eyes (a sort of gray color) and shiny blond hair). Corey was staring at the blond girl. Lauren was staring at the boy with the light brown hair, but Lan was staring at the other boy (who had black hair and violet eyes). In fact no one was string at the second girl (who had fiery red hair and emerald eyes) except when she shifted and ended up in someone else's eyes sight.

"I think I'd like to introduce everyone (who doesn't already know them) to some old friends of mine. The blond one is Katja Christine Kennedy, the brown haired one is Crieghton Matthew Whitmire, better known as Matt, the black haired one is Rand, and the red head is Kora. Now since I've never in this life met Kora or Rand, you might wonder how I know their names, well that's because I saw them in the Place of Mirrors, and knew they were people from one of my past lives," Megan said all this in a calm even tone. But I knew she was really happy to see them all.

"Little brother," Rand said suddenly.

"Big brother," Lan replied formally.


	13. Chapter 13

Act IV, Chapter III

Sibling Rivalry

"Little brother?" Usagi burst out in shock.

"Well not in this life," Lan said slowly. Then more quickly with more force, "Why did you come here? You should have known better! Haven't you done enough!"

"Well she called me, how could I not answer that call? I mean when someone kills you there's a lasting bond. Of course you wouldn't know that. You were well out of the way when all that happened," Rand replied snippily.

"Well of course! Otherwise it wouldn't have happened!" Lan cried angrily. Everyone looked on in shock. This was not the calm Lan they were all used to.

"Like you would have had any effect on her when Lena over there couldn't do anything. You know how she hung onto her smart friends, like you two. But she hung on me more," Rand said the last with a sort of pride, as if it was the greatest accomplishment of his lives.

"I wish I was an only child then none of it would have happened. You saw how she was in those lives you never showed up in, and I did. She fell for me every time. Just because we were brothers in our Incarnation. That's the only reason there was so much pain," Lan said angrily.

"Translations please," Haruka said looking confused. Well the mixture of not getting the situation, and all of it being in English over Japanese was sure to mix some of them up. Actually all of them.

"Rand was my brother in my first life, and during that time Megan's first life, Lela, fell in love with him, while I was in love with her. She went after Rand, who was called Laurent, but he was afraid of how much Power she could wield. She he rejected her. She lost it, and ended up killing everyone on the planet, which included Michelle's first life, Lena, who was Megan's closest friend. That was the beginning of the deterioration of life, originally everything would have lived forever, but because of Lela's losing it things began to grow old and die. Rand and I were passing blame back and forth over whose fault it was for death coming into the world," Lan explained to the clearly confused Japanese people flawlessly in their native language.

"Oh, so you're Laurent," Megan said with a dreamy look in her eye and a slightly confused looking tilt to her head. There was a little smile there too.

"Uh…y-y-yeah…I-I-I was," Rand looked like Megan had hit him over the head with a sledge hammer, which is not at all her style. She would much prefer to stomp on your foot with all her weight while wearing too tall heels. I made a quick check to make sure she wasn't wearing the right shoes for foot stomping.

"Where were you? Despite what Lan said I never did find you again, none of my lives," Megan asked her eyes soft.

"I was there the whole time. I had to do some time skipping to meet up with you here actually. I was with you all the way till the point when Lela took over," Rand said sounding a little more sure of himself.

"Who?"

"Rather 'what'. I was Nadilire," Rand said shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably.

"Who is the Silver Imperium Crystal? I assume you would know, because it's been bothering me ever since I figured out it was a Crystallized Soul, like you," Megan asked sounding normal (as normal as Megan ever is) again.

"It's actually the former King of the Moon, when he died he didn't want to leave his wife alone. But she never realized that it was him, that's why Princess Serenity over there never knew," Rand jerked his thumb towards Usagi at the last.

"Why did you stay with me?" Megan asked lifting an eyebrow. She didn't do it smoothly, the other eyebrow went down at the same time.

"Guilt. It's a very strong motivator," Rand muttered.

"Then you admit it was your fault?" Lan asked triumphantly.

"I never said it wasn't. you were giving me credit for words that never even existed in my mind," Rand said a little primly.

"Hi Katja-chan!" Megan said suddenly ignoring the bickering brothers.

"Hi Megan Bacon," Katja said with a smile.

"Are you back State-side, or are you just visiting for a bit? Is your dad still in Korea? What about you mom? And Nika!" Megan rushed all of it.

"Yes, no, yes. Mom and Annika are fine, they're both back in the states with me. But don't forget Pralines," Katja answered with a wry smile. It was then I realized that even though I had known her in two previous lives I actually knew very little of Megan before she was in ninth grade. Katja had known Megan years before I did. Megan had talked about this friend even years after they had stopped talking constantly.

"She's still alive? I guess that makes sense since Nesquik is still alive too. You don't have to look so shocked! You didn't think I'd be able to keep her alive for a full week! So I've been keeping her alive just to prove you wrong!" Megan finished this by sticking her tongue out. Yes we were all ever so mature.

"She's still alive? She's really old by now though, so she's going to die within a few years anyway at this point," Katja pointed out. I really can't decide if I like this blond girl or not.

"Matt-kun!" Megan ignored the comment from Katja and leaped at Matt, her arms spread wide to hug him. Matt deflected the attack with well aimed pokes in both sides. Megan squeaked and leapt back. I knew that move very well, I was quite fond of it because I love the way Megan squeaks, it's actually a bit like a dog yelping.

"Hello Megan," Matt said sounding highly dignified in comparison to Megan who was whimpering a bit. Just like a dog that's just been kicked by someone it really trusts.

"Who are you dating now?" Megan asked suspiciously with a little pout on her lips.

"No one, I'm between girlfriends,"

"Good, then I can tell you without feeling guilty that I really liked you in eighth grade, and I only acted like I liked Dominic to hid my feelings or you because there were too many girls in our school panting after you," Megan said happily. Katja looked satisfied, as if she had known this for years, and was really wishing her friend would just come clean. Matt looked like he had been hit over the head with a sledge hammer. I really want to know what invisible entity is wielding that hammer, because its aim is really good.

"But I have Lan now, so I'm over you," Megan continued with a smile.

"Kora-chan! You've been ignored. I'm very sorry about that. You were Michael in your last life right? We'll need your military prowess and super human strength soon enough," Megan said with a smile and a cocked head. I really have to wonder what's going on in her head. Because Megan is a lot smarter than she acts, and she sees a lot more than she pretends to.

"So let's shop!" Megan pronounced leading us all back out of the store. It was going to be a very long day.

**Hello! So This is the end to book 2! I really wanted to end this one on a happy note, because I ended the last on such a strange note. So this is the result! I should have the beginning of book 3 out within a week or two, so keep watch for The Rose Hourglass: Book 3!!**

**This time I'm going to give you a narrator you've met! The problem is the way I'm writing this it might be a bit before you see crazy Megan, or sweet Odango-Atama. I hope you'll hang on tight and read anyway!!**

**Bye-Bye!!**


End file.
